1st Ethical (2001–2014)
In September 2001, he launched 1st Ethical Ltd, incorporated through the services of the Birmingham subsidiary of the German credit bureau and debt collection agency Creditreform [ de ]. [10] The Bolton trainee general practitioner Rakhila Parveen was appointed the company secretary. [10] [11] The company became the UK's first FSA-authorized financial services company aimed at the Muslim community. [12] [13] It specialized in regulated investments and pensions advice with a strong focus on property investment. From 2002 to 2006, the company operated out of Preston, Lancashire. [10] In November 2002, Bashir Timol was hired as a second director. [10] [6]
By 2003, the firm had become a national brand and was among the UK's fastest growing companies. [14] It was reported to have had 18 employees and a commission income of £500,000 in its first year of operation. [6] In 2004, 1st Ethical staff advocated for Islamic inheritance planning on the Walsall-based [16] Radio Ramadhan. As of 2005, Ismail coordinated his plans for Islamic child trust funds with the Business and Economics Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, and aimed to set up an Islamic venture capital fund. His private equity firm business was eventually launched as the 1st Ethical Musharaka Fund, [19] which invested in start up businesses by young Muslims. [20] In 2005, Ismail founded 1st Ethical Tax Planning Ltd, with Timol joining him a year later. [21] He claimed at the time to be among the "elite few advisers in the UK [exceeding] £1 million in fee and commission income per annum".
In 2006, according to the company website, with margins falling in financial services Ismail converted 1st Ethical into a charity for education and humanitarian relief. [14] 1st Ethical Ltd was dissolved in June 2012, [10] and 1st Ethical Tax Planning Ltd in May 2014. [21]
In June 2006, Ismail founded 1st Ethical Tax Consulting Ltd and in January 2007, 1st Ethical Group Ltd, renamed in January 2008 to OneE Tax Ltd (a tax consultancy) and OneE Group Ltd (a holding company) respectively. [22] [23] [3] [24] [25] [26] The new company was a specialist wealth advisory service which offered the facilitation of tax breaks through R&D investment and other UK tax reliefs. [27] Its business model, which enabled investors to claim tax relief in excess of the amount invested, has been characterised as a "tax avoidance shop". [4] OneE Group operated out of offices in Greater Manchester, London and Cyprus, employing approximately 80 staff. The company's growth resulted in it being ranked 57th in the Sunday Times Fast Track listing in 2011 and 53rd in the Sunday Times Profit Track Listing in 2012. [28] [29]
By early 2008, Ismail acquired shares in Dewan Choudhury's pharmaceutical research company Nemaura Pharma, which he held until October 2019. [30]
In 2011, Ismail joined the newly founded company Trial Clinic Limited as a director and shareholder, along with Rakhila Parveen and Bashir Timol. After transferring his £150,000 worth of shares to Dewan Choudhury in December 2013, he left Trial Clinic at the end of March 2014. [31] In December 2013, he briefly held shares of the newly formed company Dermal Diagnostics Ltd, run by Bashir Timol and Dewan Choudhury. [32]
Following a preliminary approach in December 2013, in February 2014 OneE Group agreed to discuss the offer of a joint venture from the Irish film producer Kieran Corrigan (a partner in John Boorman's Merlin Films) and his company KCL which concerned the exploitation of a tax avoidance scheme designed by Corrigan and English barrister Michael Sherry. The scheme allowed corporate investors organised in limited liability partnerships (LLP) to qualify payments to sub-contractors engaged in research and development (R&D). It was proposed to use Nemaura Pharma to attract funds from investors through the scheme. Although the joint venture agreement was never signed, OneE Group offered the scheme to investors in early October 2014. [33] [34] [35] [36]
Following a complaint from Corrigan over the breach of a non-disclosure agreement covering the tax avoidance scheme on 30 October 2014, [33] Ismail left both OneE Group and OneE Tax on the next day. [23] [22] An inquiry was launched by the HM Revenue and Customs into OneE's tax relief practices, and OneE Tax entered liquidation in February 2015; it owed £70m to the HMRC, of which £15m was later agreed to be settled. [22] [4] [37]
By December 2015, Ismail became a shareholder of NPL FC Limited, [38] a company formed in December 2014 to implement the tax avoidance structure developed by OneE Group from the abandoned joint venture scheme with KCL. [33] NPL FC had by then raised £33m from investors, followed by £77m by the end of 2018. [33] It was dissolved in May 2025. [38]
OneE Group was ordered to wind up by a court due to insolvency in November 2024 on the petition of Kieran Corrigan, [23] who had sued OneE Group in 2020 and won £3.5m in damages. [33] [36]
