A series of speculative land deals north of Bangkok, the Thai capital, helped John Duffield, the founder of Jupiter, amass a £175m (€280m) payout. He received the money when Commerzbank bought out the Duffield team's 25% share in Jupiter for a much-disputed £500m earlier this year.

Jupiter earned massive fees from Asian deals, many involving Bangkok Land, the heavily indebted property company now worth a fraction of its 1993 value, when it was the largest quoted company on the Thai Stock Exchange.