In statement tonight, BBC News said it had “accepted the resignation of a member of staff who had recently been suspended following a complaint made to Panorama."
“We are still looking at the facts behind the complaint made by Harlequin and hope that the film will be broadcast in due course," the statement added.
The statement was contained in a report on the website of the Guardian newspaper on Friday, which also noted that Harlequin, which had lodged the complaint, was planning to take its claims of a possible attempt to bribe a company bodyguard to the police.
In its report, the Guardian quoted an unidentified spokesman for Harlequin as saying "We have been advised by our lawyers that we should now take the next step” and report the matter to the police. This statement was confirmed to International Adviser by the spokesman tonight.
The Guardian said that there was “sympathy among some [BBC] staff about what has happened” to the corporation’s “award-winning” producer.
As reported, the BBC initially said it had decided to postpone the broadcast of the Panorama episode, which had been scheduled to air last month on BBC1, owing to fresh information that had been received “late in the production process of this film”.
Harlequin’s allegations about a possible attempt to bribe one of its employees emerged later.
The BBC’s "Anti-Bribery Code of Conduct" sets out a "zero-tolerance approach" to bribery, stating that it "is committed to acting professionally, fairly and with integrity in all its business dealings and relationships wherever it operates".
‘Great Savings Wipe Out’
The Panorama show had been billed as "the Great Savings Wipe Out", and according to a plug on the BBC’s website, was to have been an investigation into “a series of financial scandals which have put at risk the life savings” of thousands.
Investors began piling into Harlequin in 2010 and 2011, in response to marketing campaigns featuring such celerities as tennis pro Pat Cash, and "artists impressions" of newly-built resort facilities surrounded by swimming pools and palm trees. Resorts in the Harlequin portfolio included Buccament Bay in St Vincent, and Merricks Resort in Barbados.
The Financial Services Authority issued an alert on Harlequin in January, and on 1 March, contacted providers of self-invested personal pensions (Sipps), asking them to say whether they had any clients invested in the firm, which it said is not FSA regulated. On 5 March, the Serious Fraud Office and Essex police launched a joint investigation into complaints relating to Harlequin.
Through a spokesman, Harlequin has refuted the allegations of wrong-doing that the Panorama journalists were understood to have been looking into, and has said it regarded the FSA request for information from advisers as “merely a fact-finding exercise… to determine the level of investment in Harlequin".
