Disgraced former BBC interviewer Martin Bashir has seen assets in his media company slump by 60 per cent after a damning investigation into his now infamous Princess Diana interview, new documents show.

In new company accounts filed with government, Panoramic Productions Ltd has revealed a major drop in current assets from £112,700 to £46,200 from 2021 to 2022.

No corporation tax has been paid in two years, meaning no profit has been made, and the business is now worth around a quarter of what it was in 2019.

The business’ poor performance follows high-profile revelations about the tactics Mr Bashir employed to gain access to the Princess of Wales, including forging bank statements and lying.

The BBC interview with Princess Diana made headlines around the world after she discussed her marriage to Prince Charles.

It was originally broadcast by Panorama in 1995 to an audience of 23 million people and saw Diana declare ‘there were three of us in this marriage’, causing a worldwide media frenzy.

Disgraced BBC interviewer Martin Bashir has seen assets in his media company slump by 60 per cent after a damning investigation into his Princess Diana interview (pictured)
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Disgraced BBC interviewer Martin Bashir has seen assets in his media company slump by 60 per cent after a damning investigation into his Princess Diana interview (pictured)

The BBC has now donated £1.42 million to charity from sales made from the Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. Pictured: Martin Bashir during the interview with Diana in 1995
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The BBC has now donated £1.42 million to charity from sales made from the Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. Pictured: Martin Bashir during the interview with Diana in 1995

Despite failings in internal investigations and years of speculation over the interview, Bashir was rehired by the BBC in 2016 – but appears to have suffered since the revelations came to light last year, with his business assets more than halving from £56,800 in 2021.

After costs were taken into account the business was left with just £25,800, a far cry from three years ago when the company took £200,000 in earnings on top of Bashir’s £100,000 BBC salary.

On top of this, the company’s ‘cash at bank and in hand’ reduced to around a third of the same figure for last year, demonstrating the size of Bashir’s troubles.

Bashir’s company also paid zero corporation tax in the 12 months to January, indicating the business made no profits.

This follows the company also paying no corporation tax in 2021, having previously paid £17,500 in 2020.

Bashir told Diana a string of lies and gained her trust by showing her false bank statements, he then convinced her that was having an affair with then royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.

This has since been proven to be a baseless accusation and the corporation this year apologised to Ms Legge-Bourke.

In court, she won £200,000 in damages from the BBC.

Bashir showed Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, forged bank statements to gain access to the Princess and then tricked her by peddling a string of lies, including lurid claims about Queen Elizabeth, King Charles, Prince Edward and senior courtiers.

Martin Bashir was found to have shown Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, false bank statements to get access to the princess
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Martin Bashir was found to have shown Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, false bank statements to get access to the princess

BBC bosses knew soon after the Panorama interview aired in 1995 that there were questions over Bashir’s tactics but he was cleared after what Lord Dyson later called a ‘woefully ineffective’ internal investigation.

Lord Dyson said Lord Hall, who was then head of news and current affairs, and fellow BBC boss Anne Sloman made a ‘big mistake’ by failing to interview Earl Spencer about Bashir’s approaches.

Bashir left the BBC in 1999 but he was rehired as religion correspondent in 2016, despite allegations about the methods he used to obtain the Diana interview and concerns over his conduct at ITV and in America, where he had worked for ABC and NBC. He was later promoted to religion editor.

The BBC announced last month it had made charitable donations to a sum of £1.42 million shared equally between seven charities linked with Princess Diana, it has announced.

The corporation said it has donated to Centrepoint, English National Ballet, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, The Leprosy Mission, National Aids Trust, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and The Diana Award.

The proceeds are derived from sales of the 1995 Panorama interview.