Two connected corporate rescue firms which encouraged directors struggling with company debts to sell their businesses and avoid liquidation so they would have no further responsibility for their company or debts have been shut down by the Insolvency Service. 

Atherton Corporate (UK) Ltd and Atherton Corporate Rescue Ltd, both of which traded under the Atherton brand, claimed their services were ‘a legal alternative to using insolvency practitioners’. 

They helped sell companies in financial distress, misleading former directors by telling them they could keep their company’s assets, continue to trade the business through a new company and avoid any responsibility for its debts.