Octav Botnar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Octav Botnar (October 21, 1913 – July 11, 1998) was a self-made businessman who founded Datsun UK, and a noted philanthropist, who donated over £100 million in his lifetime.

He was born in Chernivtsi, which was then called Czernowitz and belonged to Austria-Hungary. During his childhood, in 1918, Austria-Hungary dissolved and his hometown, renamed Cernăuţi, became part of Romania. Under its present name it is now part of Ukraine.

He spent 1932–1936 in prison. Afterwards, he moved to France, where he spent World War II. He returned to Romania in 1946 and remained there until 1960. He fled Communist Eastern Europe, in 1966 by way of Germany to Worthing in England, where he founded Datsun UK (now Nissan UK) in 1970, although he reputedly lived in Switzerland, France and Monaco. He fled to Switzerland in 1991 to avoid trouble with the police (according to the British authorities, he evaded more than £200 million in taxes) and died in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland.

A interesting short biography:

OCTAV BOTNAR DIES FIGHTING

20 July 1998

OCTAV Botnar's death has denied the former Nissan importer the chance to prove in court a most extraordinary claim.

He claimed the Inland Revenue colluded with the car maker to trump up tax fraud allegations and destroy his business. An extraordinary claim, but little about Botnar was anything short of remarkable.Before retreating to self-imposed exile in Switzerland in 1991 - the Revenue wanted some £250m in taxes and had arrest warrants issued for him following a massive raid on his Nissan UK importership - he had became one of the best-known businessmen in Britain. In 1966 he arrived here from Germany to handle distribution for the ailing NSU, which was later bought by Volkswagen. Left over from the NSU deal was the Nissan importership and in 1971 Botnar secured the rights to what was then Datsun and built the franchise from a handful of units then, to a giant with 6 per cent of the UK market which, in 1989, accounted for 150,000 cars. From today's perspective, Botnar was a motor sales pioneer; the bulk of Nissan sales were made by his own 220-site AFG dealer group, which included about 160 Nissan sites. But by 1990 Botnar and the car maker in Japan had fallen out and a bitter war of words ensued which, the car maker has always claimed, wrecked the launch that year of its Sunderland-built Primera. In January 1991 Nissan terminated NUK's distribution rights and took over a year later. The battle devastated Nissan sales - in 1990 fewer than 107,000 cars were sold and, as supplies to NUK withered, sales in 1991 plummeted to less than 65,000 - and the brand has yet to regain the market share Botnar achieved. The revenue's move on NUK, Botnar claimed and former NUK directors later confirmed, scuppered a similar deal with Fiat. He was also in discussions with Hyundai and Daewoo, the latter subsequently modelling its UK operation on his vertical integration model. Botnar's last years were spent defending his reputation; following the Revenue's withdrawal last year of its arrest warrants he launched a suit for malicious prosecution to clear his name. The case opened in the High Court earlier this month, and Botnar was expected to come to London to testify. But his stomach had been removed in a battle against cancer and the Revenue's claim that it had terminated criminal charges against him because he was too ill to stand trial may, alas, have been accurate. He is survived by his wife, Marcela, and executors of his estate may choose to go on with the action. Comfortable car dealers should also remember Botnar's other lives. He was born in 1913 in what is now western Ukraine. By Botnar's own account he spent time in Romanian jails for Communist activity and escaped to lead a band of fighters to Spain to resist Franco. Denied entry to Spain and facing prison back home, he joined the French army as war broke out and was captured by the Germans but escaped to the French resistance. After the war he returned to Romania to undertake humanitarian reconstruction projects but was later made a political prisoner, was subsequently released and then under Ceausescu forced to leave with his wife and daughter for West Germany where he worked for NSU. Later, in the UK, his daughter died in a road accident and Botnar established the Camelia Botnar Trust to help deprived young people. Great Ormond Street hospital has been a main beneficiary of his generosity.

Story from Motor Trader: http://www.motortrader.com/9881

Printing Date: 12 Dec 2007