LONDON (Bloomberg) — The former chief executive of Langbar International Ltd., a Bermuda-based investment company, pleaded not guilty to making false and misleading statements.

Geoffrey Stuart Pearson, 62, was granted bail yesterday at a London court. He was charged with 13 counts by the UK Serious Fraud Office. The SFO opened an investigation with London police into losses at Langbar in 2005.

In February, 2009, Langbar won a ruling in London against its ex-chief financial officer and a former director.

Justice William Blackburne ruled that former CFO Jean Pierre Regli, ex-director Abraham Arad Hochman and a company he controlled should pay Langbar around £49 million ($70 million), Langbar's chairman David Bulcher said.

The ruling followed the arrest a week earlier of six men in Spain at the request of UK authorities in connection with the alleged fraud. Hochman was one of those arrested.

The court ordered the men to pay the money because of "misrepresentations made as to Langbar's business and assets", Bulcher said in the statement.

Langbar, previously known as Crown Corp., operated as a so-called cash shell, listed on a London exchange. In 2005, the company said it was the victim of a fraud after discovering £370 million ($530 million) was missing from its accounts. In civil lawsuits, lawyers for the company called it "the largest fraud ever perpetrated on the Alternative Investment Market".

Company founder Mariusz Rybak in April agreed in 2008 to pay almost £30 million to settle a civil fraud lawsuit brought against him by the company's current board of directors. During last year's case, lawyers for Langbar's current board claimed Rybak falsified the company's assets as part of a fraud against investors.