Bidders for Perth Glory revealed to be facing legal action in London and New York
The sale of Perth Glory to a crypto-currency group is off following news that the group behind the deal is facing multiple lawsuits in the UK and US. READ THE LATEST.
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The sale of Perth Glory to a self-styled crypto-currency entrepreneur has collapsed, with Glory owner Tony Sage bowing to the inevitable and ending talks after a series of lurid revelations about the would-be buyer.
After it was revealed that the London Football Exchange Group
is being sued in London and New York, and reports that the man behind the deal is a convicted fraudster, Sage formally advised Football Federation Australia that the transaction was off.
A month after Sage announced he would become chairman of LFE, and a fortnight after he revealed hopes of selling 80 per cent of the Glory to the crypto-currency-based outfit, the embarrassing saga has come to an abrupt end.
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“On Thursday 13 February, Tony advised FFA that he had received unsolicited interest from a potential buyer being the London Football Exchange and would be travelling to London to work with his lawyers to organise a due diligence process,” said FFA in a statement. “At no time did Tony Sage request FFA to review any application for sale.
“Last night, Tony officially advised the FFA Head of Leagues, Greg O’Rourke, that, following a due diligence process, the transaction will not be pursued.”
After reports in London revealed that LFE and its management are being sued by an oil trader from Turkmenistan for more than $2 million, The Daily Telegraph learned that a US venture capital firm is also taking legal action against LFE in an ongoing case in New York.
The front man for LFE, who calls himself Jim Aylward, was alleged by Perth radio station 6PR to be James Abbass Biniaz, who was accused in 2010 of unlawful dealings.
Sage is still in Europe on a trip to conduct “due diligence” on the company to which bizarrely he was appointed chairman in January, but the latest revelations appear to have brought the takeover to the brink of collapse.
Entrepreneur Murat Seitnepesov is suing LFE over the alleged provision and non-repayment of loans by his company Petrochemical Logistics to LFE from 2017 to last year, in a case first reported by legal website Law360.
The businessman’s claim says he arranged for LFE executives to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos and sponsor a motor race in Baku, for which he was due to be paid $3m.
Seitnepesov further claims that in lieu of the repayment of the loans, he was given tokens in the LFE that were guaranteed to be worth at least $2.2m, but which were then devalued by the further issuance of millions more tokens late last year.
The Daily Telegraph can also reveal that the LFE Group was threatened with being dissolved by the UK Registrar of Companies in October last year, before a set of accounts were published as a “dormant company” three weeks before the Registrar’s deadline.
Football Federation Australia is conducting its own due diligence of the proposed takeover but seems certain to block it – assuming Sage even tries to complete the deal, as more revelations appear by the day.
That includes the alleged history of Aylward, who 6PR says travelled under his real name James Biniaz to a conference in China to promote LFE.