With more than a decade of experience and a set of glamorous pastimes, Emilia Carrière, a communications lead at a top City firm, appears not only the consummate corporate professional but a fascinating dinner party guest.
Coots & Boots, an insolvency firm, claims on its website that Carrière, whose name translates as “career” in French, helps the company keep its messaging “clear, consistent, and credible”, which might be much in need as it handles the £2.6 billion collapse of a London mortgage lender.
When not working, Carrière is believed to enjoy “golf and tennis and has a keen interest in modern art and ancient history — particularly the early history of Russia, with a fascination for the rise of the Kievan Rus’ ”, inspired by Saint Vladimir the Great.
She is also said to be a “lover of fine wine” and is “especially partial to a glass of Brunello di Montalcino, ideally shared after a day exploring the quiet beauty of Lake Orta in northern Italy — her favourite escape for a moment of calm and inspiration”.
Lake Orta Getty IMAGES
The only problem is that not much is “credible” at all about Carrière. The company’s reception had no knowledge of her. The online artificial intelligence detection tool used by The Times suggests “a high likelihood” that her profile picture on the website was AI-generated.
A fine wine to savour
She appears to have no LinkedIn profile, despite being said to have worked for more than a decade in marketing and PR.
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The “our team” section on Coots & Boots’ website says Carrière is managing the company’s “public profile and oversees media strategy across all high-profile cases”.
One such high-profile case would include overseeing the administration of parts of Market Financial Solutions (MFS), the loan agency that folded last month amid allegations of fraud.
The Financial Times says it was told by the company’s reception that no one of that name worked at Coots & Boots. The Times approached the firm for comment.
Carrière’s online biography said: “Known for her calm professionalism and sharp editorial instinct, Emilia bridges the gap between legal precision and public understanding. Whether co-ordinating press engagement or crafting client communications, she brings a thoughtful, strategic approach that strengthens C&B’s reputation for trust and transparency.”
Duncan Coutts, one of the company’s directors, said it had “expanded rapidly” but refused to answer questions about Carrière.
MFS, a provider of mortgage and bridging finance, fell into administration in February after a High Court judge said insolvency practitioners needed to investigate claims of fraud. Practitioners from AlixPartners, appointed over the MFS entity at the heart of the group, have claimed there is “compelling evidence of serious financial mismanagement”.
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It is feared certain loans may be irrecoverable because of problems created by security having allegedly been granted over the same property in favour of two or more lenders, a practice known as “double pledging”.
Along with Barclays, the FTSE 100 banking group, Wall Street institutions are caught up in the collapse.
The rise of AI-generated corporate profiles on LinkedIn and other social media sites has led to warnings for users to be vigilant when accepting requests from unknown accounts.