The case of Shaid “Lucky” Luqman, Ernst & Young's Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004, since jailed for contempt of court, rumbles on.

The Serious Fraud Office is taking a keen interest in the lending by Barclays of £120 million to Luqman. What is exciting the SFO's attention, City Spy hears, is the prospect of a blatant Land Registry computer swindle and the strong suggestion Luqman was not acting alone.

Developer Trevor Guy discovered that land he owned had in fact been registered in the name of Luqman's firm Lexi Holdings at the Land Registry, and used as security for the Barclays cash.

The Appeal Court ruled last year that although Guy could be reinstated as registered owner of the land, Barclays would retain its charge. This meant, perversely, the bank could sell the property, even though Guy had not borrowed its money. The latest twist is that the SFO wants to know how Luqman was able to so easily get land that wasn't his transferred into his company name...

* One nasty message lurking in the latest US non-farm payroll numbers: if you're an American in a recession, try not to be black. Of the 563,000 who lost their jobs last month, 343,000 were black. While the overall rate of unemployment soared to 8.9%, the black rate shot up to 15%, against 11.3% for Hispanics and 8% for whites. By the way, the government's much-vaunted stress tests for banks were based on a worst-case scenario of the overall unemployment rate hitting 10.3%...

THE case of Shaid "Lucky" Luqman, Ernst & Young's Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004, since jailed for contempt of court, rumbles on.

The Serious Fraud Office is taking a keen interest in the lending by Barclays of £120 million to Luqman. What is exciting the SFO's attention, City Spy hears, is the prospect of a blatant Land Registry computer swindle and the strong suggestion Luqman was not acting alone.

Developer Trevor Guy discovered that land he owned had in fact been registered in the name of Luqman's firm Lexi Holdings at the Land Registry, and used as security for the Barclays cash.

The Appeal Court ruled last year that although Guy could be reinstated as registered owner of the land, Barclays would retain its charge. This meant, perversely, the bank could sell the property, even though Guy had not borrowed its money. The latest twist is that the SFO wants to know how Luqman was able to so easily get land that wasn't his transferred into his company name...

Lex takes a pop at an ex...

The Financial Times's Lex column has its tongue firmly in its cheek. In an item on the woes of Lloyds Banking Group, Lex says: “John Kingman, our man in charge of UK banks, has a few years before his knighthood to show some backbone. The Treasury golden boy came to this job with the dubious distinction of having been Gordon Brown's spinmeister when he was Chancellor and then the official responsible for £600 billion of public spending at a time of fiscal incontinence.

He could start making amends by sacking [Lloyds chairman and chief executive] Sir Victor Blank and Eric Daniels.” Now Lex is being serious about getting rid of Blank and Daniels, but the FT is having a little joke at Kingman's expense too by teasing him about dubious distinction in his past career. Kingman, 40, used to be staff writer on... Lex.

* EMI's decision to publish its results, which it is not obliged to, last set tongues wagging. Manhattan gossips wondered if the firm was trying to show up New York rival Warner Music which, as a listed company, had scheduled its latest earnings on the same day. Warner reported a $68 million lodd. The New York Post said that when it suggested to EMI chief executive Elio Leoni-Sceti that he was cocking a snook at Warner, he claimed ignorance, saying: “We had planned to put out our numbers for a long time.

I didn't know Warner was putting out their numbers on the same day until a couple of days ago.” Hmmm.

* The Centre for Policy Studies has allowed its chairman Maurice Saatchi to publish a polemic The Myth of Inflation Targeting, the latest attack on the last shreds of Gordon Brown's dozen-year economic policy. One of the advertising baron's greatest beefs is how we have been bamboozled by acronyms. He challenges anyone, chief executive, central banker or lowly shareholder to translate the following sentence into English:

“I use CFDs in my SIV to buy CDIs in the CDS .”

* Modern ethical dilemma: if you're a PR adviser and you file an entry to a newspaper website defending a client, should you declare your interest? Jonathan Haslam presumably doesn't think so.

The sometime John Major and Steve Norris spinner is currently speaking for Clare Spottiswoode, the policyholder advocate charged with getting a good deal for Aviva customers as the insurer distributes funds in its orphan estate. Up pops a “Jonathan Haslam, London UK” on the Evening Standard website, hitting back at suggestions they may not have got a great deal. Alas, he is quickly outed. Jonathan, why not declare an interest at the outset? It's much simpler.

Lady in red puts on a fine spread

Much fascination at the offices of Brunswick over the four-page spread in Tatler given to Susan Gilchrist, partner at Alan Parker's PR firm. Gilchrist is married to historian Andrew Roberts, and what a pair they make. “Oh, my darling! Wow you look so like...” begins Roberts. “A lampshade?” suggests Gilchrist. “Audrey Hepburn,” interjects Roberts quickly. Gilchrist wears a Giambattista Valli £3470 silk dress and £410 Christian Louboutin heels.

The male interviewer tells of “her long fingers wrapped around a glass of mineral water. She had been hoping for champagne, but Andrew has decided they should pace themselves. They were out last night at Henry and Tessa Keswick's dinner” and of “her red high heels, grey pencil skirts and belted red leather jackets”...

* Gilchrist and Roberts are undeniably well-connected. After the Tatler interview, they gave a dinner for Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, ex-Chancellor Lord Lawson and historian Niall Ferguson. “This, Susan points out, on a day when for the first time since 2002, an auction of gilts has failed... Roberts tells me the 16 guests drank 16 bottles of Pol Roger and a delicious' 1990 St Julien.”

* One nasty message lurking in the latest US non-farm payroll numbers: if you're an American in a recession, try not to be black. Of the 563,000 who lost their jobs last month, 343,000 were black. While the overall rate of unemployment soared to 8.9%, the black rate shot up to 15%, against 11.3% for Hispanics and 8% for whites. By the way, the government's much-vaunted stress tests for banks were based on a worst-case scenario of the overall unemployment rate hitting 10.3%...