A company that was loaned $800,000 by the Government to set up a recording studio is to be shut down.

According to a notice from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Government has filed a petition for Savvy Entertainment Limited to be wound up.

The company is owned by Anthony Blakey, who secured the loan from the Government in 2018 to set up the Savvy recording studio in Dockyard.

But the project never got off the ground and Mr Blakey, from Atlanta, then disappeared. He is believed to be on the run in the United States and extradition proceedings have begun to bring him back to Bermuda, where he faces a charge of obtaining a money transfer by deception.

A demand-for-payment notice issued in June 2019 said Mr Blakey had defaulted on $778,204 of the loan.

The notice states that a petition was filed on December 20 last year by the Ministry of Transport and will be heard next week.

It goes on: “Any creditor or contributory of the company desirous to support or oppose the making of an order on the said petition may appear at the time of the hearing by himself or his counsel for that purpose; and a copy of the petition will be furnished to any creditor or contributory of the company requiring the same by the undersigned on payment of the regulated charge for the same.”

A police spokesman said that the extradition process remained “ongoing“. No further details were given.