How Wise co-founder went from tech darling to tax list of shame

FCA could bar Kristo Kaarmann from senior role after claim he failed to pay 720,000 in tax

• FCA investigates Wise co-founder after tax default

When the payments company Wise floated on the London Stock Exchange last summer it propelled its founders into the ranks of Britain's richest people. But Kristo Kaarmann, one of the Estonian pair who launched the firm, soon found himself on an altogether less desirable list: named and shamed as a tax defaulter by HM Revenue and Customs.

Kaarmann was identified as having failed to pay 720,000 in tax, joining a series of restaurants, builders and even a strip club who had all fallen foul of the tax authority. HMRC describes the defaults as deliberate", but Wise insists it was a matter of keeping his personal admin in order".