2009-07-05 15:39:02 -

LONDON (AP) - British authorities will launch a criminal investigation into the 2005 collapse of automaker MG Rover, which led to the loss of more than 6,000 jobs, the BBC and a newspaper reported Sunday
The broadcaster and the Sunday Times said Business Secretary Peter Mandelson would announce the Serious Fraud Office investigation in a written statement to Parliament on Monday.
In 2000, Britain's Phoenix consortium bought Rover from Germany's BMW for a token price of 10 pounds.
Rover _ the last major British-owned carmaker _ declared bankruptcy five years later with debts of more than 1 billion pounds. Its assets were sold in 2006 to China's Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corp., which revived the MG sports car brand.
The government held a four-year inquiry into what went wrong.

The British government's business department said Mandelson would make a statement on Monday updating lawmakers on the findings of the inquiry, but would not confirm the launch of a criminal investigation.
The Serious Fraud Office declined to comment.