An heir to the JCB empire is locked in a multi-million pound court battle which is said to have seen him admit ordering cannabis online and sending ‘explicit photographs’.
Jo Bamford was the son and Tory donor Lord Bamford’s boss Jo Bamford. He is now suing his friend.
The case has seen Mr Bamford’s business dealings come under scrutiny, and has revealed alleged tensions in one of Britain’s most powerful industrial families.
Mr Bamford, 44, is a ‘green entrepreneur’ whose companies have won taxpayer-funded contracts worth nearly £80million for zero-emission buses in England and Northern Ireland.
He is currently in an American legal dispute over Joseph Manheim, his childhood best friend, and a business they founded together.
Jo Bamford (pictured right with Alex Gore Brown), the son of billionaire JCB boss and Tory donor Lord Bamford, is locked in a multi-million pound court battle with his former best friend
Once, the couple was so close that Mr Manheim’s wife and Mr Bamford went on holiday with them while they were honeymooning. They were Godfathers to each other’s children.
Mr Bamford and another director have accused Mr Manheim of ‘surreptitiously’ seizing control of the business and then taking £4.4million out of it.
He denies the allegation and accuses Mr Bamford of attempting to use the case to carry out a ‘bloodless coup’ to seize control of the company himself.
In his evidence, Mr Bamford admitted he had used company email accounts to order cannabis via the website Craigslist, and that he had used his work email to send ‘inappropriate, explicit photographs’, The Guardian reported.
He and another director accused Mr Manheim of using company funds for outings to a Philadelphia strip club called Delilah’s Den, to lease a Porsche and to cover the cost of playing in a polo match in Argentina. In court, Mr Bamford confirmed that he had ‘regretfully left the family firm’ in 2016 after a ‘difficult and painful conversation’ with his father.
Mr Bamford is suing his former best friend Joseph Manheim (pictured in 1998) in a row over the ownership of a company in the US
Lord Bamford, 76, is one of Britain’s most successful industrialists and his fortune has been estimated at £4.6billion.
The Guardian reported that Mr Bamford told the court: ‘My dad didn’t want to stop running the business, and I didn’t want him to stop running the business. And I really didn’t want to be Prince Charles, I didn’t want to be waiting for the rest of my life. I wanted to go and run my own business.’
It is about a company founded by Manheim in 2012 using start-up capital from Mr Bamford.
The picture shows Mr Bamford (left) and his father Lord Bamford. Jo Bamford, Lord Bamford, and Jo Bamford were representing JCB. They said that the US legal proceedings did not have any connection to the peer or the digger company.
Delaware Valley Regional Center helped wealthy Far Eastern investors obtain fast visas that allowed them to work and live in the USA. In exchange, they invested in infrastructure projects.
However, in 2018, Mr Manheim and his fellow directors decided to remove Mr Bamford as a director from a holding company. Bamford is a collector of classic cars and claims that he was illegally dismissed. He sought damages to Mr. Manheim and for him to be removed as a board member and replaced with a trustee.
Each man denies any wrongdoing. A final verdict on the case won’t be reached until next year.
Jo Bamford, Lord Bamford, and Jo Bamford were the joint lawyers for JCB. They stated that the US legal proceedings did not have any connection to either the digger company or the peer.