HIGH-street bookseller Waterstones is being accused of paying its staff “poverty wages” while sending millions of pounds overseas to its new owners, US hedge fund Elliot Advisors.

An investigation by research group Corporate Watch has found that Elliot Advisors “has set up an offshore financing scheme that could see it make £17 million a year from the bookseller.”

The investigators also claim that Waterstones’ highest paid director takes home “100 times more than staff on the minimum wage.”