The daughter of Nadhmi Auchi - one of Britain's wealthiest tycoons who was arrested earlier this week on a French extradition warrant - is under criminal investigation for allegedly taking part in a suspected drug company price-fixing cartel which provided the NHS with millions of pounds worth of prescription medicines.
Luma Auchi is among 15 individuals named on a serious fraud office search warrant and is understood to have been directly in charge of running generic drugs manufacturer Regent-GM during part of the period between 1996 and 2000 on which the SFO's investigation is focusing.
The SFO has not charged anyone in relation to its investigation.
Luma Auchi's father owns the business through the Luxembourg holding company General Mediterranean. Mr Auchi is a British national exiled from Iraq, where his brother is said to have been executed by Saddam Hussein's regime.
He was arrested by British police on Monday in response to separate allegations, made by French prosecutors, concerning a suspected multi-million pound bogus commissions scandal at the oil firm Elf Aquitaine in the early 1990s. He has previous denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Auchi ranked among the top 10 wealthiest people in Britain until last year, according to the Sunday Times rich list. With a fortune worth £1.2bn, he now ranks equal 13th alongside retailing boss Philip Green.
The SFO search warrant which mentions Ms Auchi was used last April in the biggest series of dawn raids ever carried out by fraud investigators in Britain.
The warrant authorised officers to seize "material which is relevant to the meetings at which it is alleged that the conspiracy was discussed: this includes reception logs, diaries, agendas, set-up paperwork including invitations, papers for discussion, minutes or notes."
The warrant also authorised officers to seize "in particular" correspondence, emails, faxes or notes of telephone calls involving 15 individuals, including Ms Auchi.
Little is known about Ms Auchi, but a source close to Regent claims that she started out "working in not a greatly defined capacity in the company because she was the shareholder's daughter", before becoming "de facto managing director" in the late 1990s. She is a director of Regent.
A spokesperson for the Auchis declined to comment to the Guardian.
The SFO's investigation has caused embarrassment in political circles because a number of politicians and donors have been linked to the six companies under investigation for allegedly fixing prices on blood-thinning drug warfarin, which accounts for about 5m prescriptions a year, and penicillin antibiotics.
Former foreign office minister Keith Vaz, who is a friend of Mr Auchi, was a member of the General Mediterranean board for a five-week period during the time the alleged cartel was in operation.
Earlier this week, Mr Vaz claimed never to have attended a board meeting and to have resigned in order to take up a ministerial post. "I don't even know what they do," he said.
Other career politicians on the board of General Mediterranean or its subsidiaries are former Liberal party leader Lord Steel, former president of the European commission Jacques Santer, former Conservative chancellor Norman Lamont and former Tory health minster Gerry Malone, who is chairman of Regent.
The Department of Health has filed a £28m civil claim against Regent and two other drugs firms over the alleged fixing of the price of warfarin. The claim mentions Ms Auchi by name.
All three firms are believed to be fighting the lawsuit.
