777 Partners accused of fraud in US lawsuit

If so who if anybody is next in line?

And it seems to strike right at the core of the incredibly nefarious financial shenanigans that apparently pass for 'acceptable business practices' in Miami.

I know very little about finance, but if the club is valued at £600M and the debts are at least that, it means the club is essentially worth nothing?

"but if the club is valued at £600M and the debts are at least that."

Under New York law, a corporation is considered to be a “mere alter ego when it 'has been so dominated by … another corporation … and its separate identity so disregarded, that it primarily transacted the dominator's business rather than its own.

Now, in how many countries is Wander in trouble?

What happens if the loans they made to Everton have come from funds that haven't been collateralised properly?

Moshiri was in it for the "prestige", I suspect. It didn't turn out well, but he was a safer bet than the Americans who made a killing in refinancing debt as a lender of last resort.

Co-founded [777] by Josh Wander in 2015, the firm is also behind Canada's ultra-low-cost carrier Flair and with up to 134 Boeing 737s on order, 777 Partners has ambitious plans to launch even more airlines.

The lawsuit, however, claims that Wander is responsible for a “years-long pattern of fraud” and has built a “house of cards on the brink of collapse”.

The allegations have been made by Leadenhall Life Insurance Linked Investments Fund, which agreed to offer Wander and 777 Partners a credit facility of up to $350 million on the proviso that 777 Partners used assets that it actually owned as collateral.

Wander, however, is accused of double-pledging those assets, effectively turning the credit facility into an “illegal and unsecured personal piggy bank” the lawsuit alleges.

Leadenhall agreed to offer Wander the credit facility with a preferential interest rate in May 2021, but more than a year and a half later, the firm received an anonymous tipoff that Wander had already pledged the assets to another lender.

Last year, Wander allegedly admitted to double pledging some assets in what he described as an embarrassing mistake in a recorded conference call, the lawsuit alleges. Leadenhall, however, claims Wander hadn't come completely clean with it.

The lawsuit says 777 Partners are closely tied up with a New York-based insurance company, Advantage Capital Holdings, or A-Cap for short. A-Cap is allegedly the ‘silent partner' behind all of Wander's businesses, providing the firm with at least $1 billion in loans to fund its dealings.

In fact, A-Cap and 777 Partners are so intertwined, the lawsuit alleges, that A-Cap has secured “the right to control all facets of 777 Partners' operations”.

Private Equity Firm Behind Failed Australian Airline Bonza Has Been Accused of Multi-Million-Dollar Fraud in a New York Court — PaddleYourOwnKanoo.com

Perhaps this is a mitigating factor? Perhaps the Premier League had been briefed on all the outstanding and ongoing skirmishes 777 are embroiled in? In which case, this would not be news to them.

Still seems just astounding that the Premier League has let it drag on into its 8th month with still no approval in sight if A-Cap aren't producing the dosh and 777 are still scratching around…

As far as I know, having been regulated by the FSA, the predecessors of the FCA, they can only investigate complaints about companies or individuals based in the UK, hence the New York court involvement.

The three FCA fit and proper tests are for honesty, integrity and reputation, competence and capability and financial soundness. How 777 passed all those three is a mystery to me.

7 months and counting and they can't prove themselves fit and proper. Does anyone know why Moshiri is persevering with 777 Partners?

I don't think the Premier League will pull the plug as such. I think all they will do is withhold approval because 777 Partners will never meet the financial requirements laid down.

Until 777 withdraw their bid or Moshiri decides to look elsewhere, we will remain in a state of limbo.

Have to say this guy has a pair of big brass ones to just keep doubling-down on what must amount to at least $1 billion of other people's money, without any outward concern for the trouble he could be in.

Any port in a storm, as they say. I dare say Timmy would make a more credible board member than dear old Sharpy.

The most sickening thing I've read on this website lately is some people saying this group might be okay. I could understand it if we hadn't had such dreadful owners for a very long time but surely this is the time to rid ourselves of all the stains of the previous 25 years?

If it's true that you get the club you deserve, then it's time us Evertonians borrowed a phrase from the late Sir John Moores and started demanding better for our club, once again.

On 14 September last year, MSP and Moshiri completed the loan deal backed up by the new stadium as collateral.

On 15 September, 777 Partners and R&MF announced their agreement regarding the money owed to R&MF. Followed by Moshiri and Wander inking the sale of the Club to 777 Partners.

They have a deal; signatures and everything. 777 Partners have been paying the bills since. Moshiri is not "perservering" with 777, because he's sold them the Club. 777 are up to their neck.

Moshiri is done with Everton. He's waiting to see what happens like the rest of us.

Not sure he can paint a rosy picture about this crowd.

I am led to believe the exclusivity agreement with Moshiri expired on 30 April and if so I can't understand why Moshiri hasn't quickly gone to Plan B.

Teneo may be Plan B.

But he would have to get approval of MSP Sports Capital whose payments is overdue, R&MF who have securities, and 777 Partners that he has agreed to sell his Everton shares to and have provided £200m in loans against part of the shares that they have agreed to buy from Moshiri.

It just is a mess of complicated proportions that is getting worse..

Sorry to be disagreeable but I can't agree when you say "Moshiri is done with Everton."

Farhad Moshiri is an Everton Director, a member of the Board of Directors, and as such has a fiduciary responsibility to continue to run the club in a manner that protects the investment made by the shareholders.

I couldn't help laughing as I wrote that but it's true. You may have read on here many posters say we have no board and an absentee owner – but these things are just not true.

I believe he remains the major shareholder until the deal is ratified by the Premier League. His attendance at the odd game, participation in commissions, and talking to the FAB show that he is still involved with Everton — perhaps more so than he ever was when that ultimate charlatan Bill Kenwright was still alive and kicking.

Jay @27,

I'm not sure there ever was an exclusivity arrangement as such. It was never mentioned back in September when the takeover deal originally became news.

But the question asked is "Does anyone know why Moshiri is persevering with 777 Partners?" Some version of that is asked routinely here.

What I posted shows every indication that he's done, or if you like "done". If 777's deal falls thru or their business collapses in the meantime, he'll deal with whatever comes next. But isn't about to lift a pinky until then.

Meantime, I agree, the name Farhad Moshiri is still on various name plates around Goodison and the Liver Building.

Highly unlikely, but I don't think anyone within the Premier League would be wanting to help Moshiri, who must be perceived by many as nothing more than a lackey for Usmanov.

But as Everton are currently stuck in limbo, hopefully they have something in the pipeline to help stop us very long-suffering Toffees from going insane with worry about what is going to happen to our club.

777 won't admit they can't come up with the money.

Moshiri won't admit (to himself?) that they can't either.

And the Premier League won't admit they don't give a fuck either way.

What assets could they seize, the new Stadium, Goodison Park!!!

“ In a solvent company, the business is run for the benefit of its shareholders. In an insolvent business, it's run for the benefit of its creditors.

“As soon as a director of a company believes it cannot pay its debts as they fall due, they must appoint an administrator; otherwise, they become personally liable for the debt.
The administrator only has one objective: to realise the most cash for creditors.

“Once appointed the administrator takes all decisions of a financial nature.”

There must be some very nervous people involved in this shemozzle.

Having this endlessly dragged out is leading to one conclusion only, and one that is not a good one for Everton Football Club and it's fans. (Us!)

For those that claim to be custodians of our club and of our game, if they don't get this right, this will prove to be one of the biggest derelictions of duty. How many of us trust either Moshiri or the Premier League to make a decision in the interests of the club and fans? Not me!

For instance, I think the multi-club ownership model could work if handled well – why shouldn't it be substantially different to running any other multinational businesses.
I have very little faith in the wholesomeness of ‘business' types in the 21st century.

Disrupters are the big thing these days, and they only get judged on how successful they become, not on whether they have destroyed a decent competitive market place and replaced it with a virtual monopoly.

Chancers, bluffers and out-and-out con artists seem to somehow gain respectability if they actually build their empires, only suffering real criticism when their machinations don't pay-out.

I can't work out why Moshiri chose 777 Partners or has stuck with them for so long. I can only conclude from the fact that their application hasn't been soundly rejected by the Premier League that they aren't actually as beyond the pale as the various headlines make them appear.

I'm not for 777 Partners but I'm not about to support ‘anybody but them' either.

Our owner, Mr Moshiri, has I think repeatedly warned us of Everton's existential threat. And insists our only hope rests with another company which seemingly has its own existential threat.

Now why would that be, do you suppose?

Insurers sue rating agency over exposure to Everton bidder 777 — Financial Times, 4 May 2024

What was your former boss's stance on who should have regard for the customers of the business (the fans, of course, being the ultimate customers for professional football)?

Seems fairly typical that a manager is apparently only bothered about shareholders as they will ultimately control his or her renumeration. It would be wonderful to hear if anybody these days really cares about giving their customers the best quality they can manage at a wholly reasonable price.

One key point is: In the commercial property world, what is the standard return on investment on a £750M (blue and) white elephant of a stadium with only one – in real terms – potential renter???

I would hazard a guess that, if all the debts (and estimates vary from £800M to £1.2B) were paid off, and in that would include whatever now smallish bit of cash Moshiri might trouser himself – that this white knight benefactor would basically get the club and the stadium 'thrown in for free'.

This might also involve a brief (maybe simultaneous) state of being wound up to avoid administration and reformed as a new entity.

Where, instead of the main asset being a Premier League club with a stadium, we become a stadium with a Premier League club with the stadium as the main asset... and some players hopefully.

The mysterious man behind 777 Partners, the strange private equity firm that owns Bonza — ABC News (Australia), 3 May 2024

I agree on some of that. 777 Partners did ask the League to give them until the end of May. Still a few weeks more weeks of suffering. For us, what's a few more weeks at this point?

From everything we see and hear, the Club and the League are waiting for 777 Partners to collapse.

My feeling is that Moshiri can field that pretty easily. The League, though, has a different responsibility. At some point, they have to make a decision.

Come the end of this month, disapprove the sale and Moshiri will deal with whomever is hovering overhead. Preferably, not like vultures.

So with 777 Partners as his 100% approved purchasers (again by him alone, allegedly), he's now actively seeking to improve his personal financial credibility in whatever world of accountancy deviousness he believes himself to be still credible, to the cost of the very existence of our club's financial credibility for many years to come.

Maybe those of us who so trusted Kenwright to the extent of proposing to name a stand in the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock after him will now come forward to contend "The Farhad Moshiri Fucking Us For Decades To Come Stadium" as its name, as a fitting recognition of the disaster he's bestowed upon us.

An administrator is only interested in the money and getting his cut – and he is first in the queue. 😬

After all, if you are asked, "Would you like to swim with the fishes or take my advice, comrade?" — What would you do?

Stinks to high heaven.

Couldn't we all band together and take a class action against him in court for failing to do the above and knowingly doing so?

I just hope like hell we can pick up more points just in case, not sure but I seem to remember the Premier League were going to review something that could lead to a 2-point reduction at the end of the season.

I still can't get my head around why Moshiri has let it get so bad considering his reputation in the business world and I feel there has to be some end game for Mr Moshiri.

It must have been that there was a payment due to R&MF, which Moshiri was not prepared to pay and which MSP Sports Capital were not prepared to pay on Moshiri's behalf, in addition to Moshiri's remaining shares in a takeover of Everton.

777 Partners were prepared to pay this due amount in addition to purchasing Moshiri's shares. This resulted in the takeover agreement between Moshiri and 777 Partners.

A-Cap would not have claim on Everton, since 777 Partners' borrowings are unsecured against assets, other than an agreement to purchase Moshiri's shares which 777 Partners seen unable to fulfil.

The Premier League is a regulator and can only act when the club presents figures that breach their Rules or it is reported to them by other regulator agencies, eg FCA or insolvency court proceedings that officially come into the public domain and have broken their rules. A Regulator is always too late.

R&MF loans are secured against Goodison Park. Everton's MSP Sportis Capital loans are secured against Everton Stadium Development Company via a company owned by AS Bell and his wife. Metro is another secured borrower... I am not sure whether the latter has been satisfied.

777 Partners' loans to Everton are unsecured other than by an agreement to purchase Moshiri's shares, either directly or indirectly.

If they've put in £200M but there are doubts as to where that £200M has come from, it does beg the question who the ‘real' lender is. If 777 Partners go down, someone is going to lay claim to the £200M – who? We don't know.

I just cannot imagine any scenario now where 777 Partners are the owners of the club. At least that's a positive to add to avoiding relegation. Ultimately, as long as the club is in the Premier League, it has value.

The funding agreement that 777 Partners have would be a separate arrangement, that has been entered into in contemplation of the sale.

If 777 Partners withdraw or cannot meet the conditions stipulated by the Premier League, then the club's ownership would remain with Moshiri.

The agreements will be subject to regulatory approval, but they'll have a date when the deal needs to be completed by. This can be extended by the agreement of both, and if not, it can be terminated by the seller.

It is £200M loaned and whatever 777 Partners paid R&MF on behalf of Moshiri to satisfy the conditions of the R&MF loan involved.

At the time, it was rumoured to be £80M to £100M. R&MF still have other secured loans with Everton. I am assuming that security was not transferred for the loan, since no charge has been registered under Company Law as yet.

The source of recent funding is unknown.

"777 Partners or anyone" is kind of what I'm alluding towards Si. We need “good” owners for a change, instead of nepotistic conmen or lackeys who don't want Everton Football Club to be taking up to much of their time.

The American investors who I've been going on about for a long time now could be worse than anyone but there is one thing that I've heard about this group that gives me a little bit of hope. First we have got to see what happens with Moshiri's pick because they might just be the only group in town!

At that point, it would surely be time for Mr Moshiri to cut a deal seeing as how he also owes 777 $200M.

Looks like MSP are in the box seat to me – especially now we have maintained our Premier League status for another year.

However, a failure to meet the CPs to the SPA, would mean Moshiri would have to revisit the arrangement with 777 Partners and other creditors. Perhaps that is why he brought in the restructuring experts last week to discuss alternatives.

I would rather have an ex-player based or driven consortium that will give the club certainty. The fans have had enough of financial skullduggery, dubious owners, and cloak-and-dagger goings on.

Personally, I would rather not have 777 Partners involved but, if they are the only investors to keep us afloat, we as fans have to put up with it, but for me there is no longevity in this deal.

777 Partners are funded by 777 Re. A-Cap was a major provider of pension funds to 777 Re. 777 Re debt bundles have a rating of C-. A-Cap are fighting a reduction from B++ to B-.

Being Bermuda-based and reinsuring pension funds, both with restricted information access, it is not possible to find who is ultimately investing in 777 Re.

“Moshiri would have to revisit the arrangement with 777 and other creditors. Perhaps that is why he brought in the restructuring experts last week to discuss alternatives.”

Precisely – one of the other creditors being MSP who wanted to buy the club at the beginning of this saga.

Strange as it may sound, I am beginning to feel optimistic. 777 have run out of money and are fast running out of time. I am hoping they pull out of the deal on condition they get their $200M back.

Between The Esk, Kieran Maguire and Keith sodding Wyness (amongst others), I'm losing the will to live.

Laurie #58, MSP did not want to buy the club, they only wanted to buy 25% of the shares from Moshiri. So only an investment, and maybe just transferring their debt to equity rather than a cash influx?

I feel the same way. Most of the takeover news is groundless speculation. Maybe 'groundless' is a bad choice of word.

I just have this horrible feeling that – despite all the bad news about 777 Partners – they will actually wind up being our owners and we will be in a worse situation than we are now.

In trying to explain just how bad 777's latest legal scrape is for the Miami-based investment firm, it is difficult to know where to start.

The complainant this time is London-based investment firm Leadenhall and the civil suit it has filed against 777 Partners, some of its portfolio companies, its co-owners Steven Pasko and Josh Wander, its close partner A-Cap and its boss Kenneth King, runs to 82 pages. And there is a wounding zinger on each page.

But perhaps the easiest place to start is simply to say this must surely be the end of 777's almost eight-month attempt to complete its purchase of Everton, and very possibly the end of 777, too.

The allegations are staggering, although to many they will not really come as a huge surprise.

After all, Leadenhall's complaint, which was filed in a US district court in New York on Friday, notes that 777 and its associated companies are already the subject of 16 different lawsuits over unpaid debts totalling more than $130million (£104m). Leadenhall, for what it is worth, says it is owed more than $600m by the group.

Wow, right? But Leadenhall says 777 and its affiliates owe A-Cap more than $2billion, not that it thinks A-Cap itself deserves any sympathy, as Leadenhall believes A-Cap is in on the scam.

The central allegation is that 777 and its associated companies set up a credit facility with Leadenhall in 2021 that was secured against assets that had to be “free and clear” of all other potential claims. And the unencumbered status of these assets had to be confirmed to Leadenhall by the group every month. This enabled the 777 group to borrow lots of money from Leadenhall, at a relatively low interest rate.

However, a combination of anonymous tip-offs, forensic accounting, conversations with other lenders and, even, admissions from 777's main man Wander himself led Leadenhall to the conclusion that what was going on here was “a giant shell game, at best, and an outright Ponzi scheme, at worst”.

Instead of “free and clear”, most of 777's collateral either did not exist or it was “double-pledged”. Oh, and the borrowers forged documents and faked records to hide its deception, Leadenhall claims.

“Everton is the latest shiny object of Wander's fraudulent scheme, solvency aside,” the complaint says.

“Despite the fact that 777 Partners and many of the operating businesses and professional football teams that Wander owns are deep in debt, behind on their obligations, and on thin ice with regulators, Wander's strategy has been continued expansion — using debt to acquire new assets that he can then use as collateral for more debt, which he then fails to timely pay off, in a seemingly never-ending cycle of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul'.”

This “house of cards” was propped up, in “Whac-A-Mole fashion” by King's A-Cap, which, contrary to 777's agreement with Leadenhall, had overarching security over all of 777's assets.

But, according to Leadenhall, King's control over 777 goes even further than that. He is the “puppeteer to Wander's marionette” and the “Wizard of Oz behind the 777 curtain”. It is A-Cap's money which has bankrolled 777's purchase of airlines and football clubs. It is A-Cap's money that has been paying Everton's bills.

And when we say A-Cap's money, what we really mean is it is the insurance premiums of millions of regular Americans, everyday folk who have invested in healthcare and pension schemes, people who thought their money was going into gold-plated, copper-bottomed investments that would definitely be there for them if and when required.

Evertonians, do you agree with current owner Farhad Moshiri that this lot are the “best partners to take (your) great club forward”?

Obviously, this is just a civil suit. We are not yet at the criminal stage, and we may never get there. Wander and 777 have declined to comment but their usual line is they never comment on ongoing litigation.

A-Cap has not yet responded to a request for comment from The Athletic but in a statement to The New York Times it said the accusations are “sensational and unfounded”. “A-Cap, similar to Leadenhall Capital, serves as a lender to 777 — there are no ownership ties,” it said. “The key distinction lies in the fact that A-Cap holds senior rights to collateral associated with 777.”

The plan, as far as Leadenhall can fathom, was to funnel money, usually borrowed money, into “speculative bets” on airlines, payday lenders and football clubs, with Everton being the biggest and most important bet of all.

But A-Cap has already been forced to try to untangle itself from 777, under pressure from its rating agency and state insurance regulators.

Good luck with that. Hope it goes well — if not for you but certainly for your customers, who did not sign up for this.

But can you conduct your experiments in financial engineering away from our football clubs, please? They are not moles to be whacked, Peters to be robbed or shells to play with.

It's hard to see what 777 could say to answer these claims. But whatever happens, for Everton, the FA and the Premier League, surely this is now too much.

It has to be over. This must be the end.

If the above is right, I'm not sure where that leaves the club if 777 Partners are unable to buy the club, either due to lack of funds and/or not being passed for and proper. Where does the £200m stand relative to the other debt?

Your #57 post would suggest 777 Partners have no gas left in the tank as their main funding via the insurance side has dried up. Given the rumours swirling about, I cannot see a scenario whereby 777 Partners are in a position to buy the club.

I think in the long run this would be positive and I cannot see what positive outcome the club would have with them as owners. They haven't got a pot to piss in and their other business ventures seem to be crumbling apart.

Whatever the outcome, I hope the management is at least allowed to plan for next season. PSR is pretty clear re the losses allowed and so that should make it clear what profit from player sales is needed before 30 June.

So we choose Onana or Branthwaite and get a good price and move on. Get a few frees and loanees in to replace the high earners going and ensure we have a better squad than this season.

Dyche and team can only sort out the playing side after all.

News of 777's woes is good all round.

He went from running the Dodgers to fighting sex trafficking — LA Times, 11 February 2022

I think where we're at is that Everton is not a going concern and needs to be restructured with a creditors agreement. So that means that all the creditors have to work together. An example is Elliot Management and AC Milan.

The rumours round Teneo's involvement would seem to indicate that this is being attempted by Moshiri.

But there is a problem in that Moshiri has no equity leverage,
unlike Elliot Management, or management creditablity and there are big questions around 777 Partners, who will never takeover Everton.

On top of that, Teneo, according to the US Federal Government, have ongoing Oligarchy relationships.

The only one capable of this restructuring is MSP Sports Capital, but it would take Moshiri and 777 Partners to be sorted and preferably gone, and any possible Russian connections with them.

Everton would then become a going concern and sold properly.

Not the guy from the US Office I hope, although his accounting skills would be an upgrade on what we currently have at Everton.

The link to the LA Times is no longer there or unavailable. 404 error.

Instead they extended the loan period. It is like the Gordian knot.

Strange. I'm pulling it up okay. I converted it to a live link, so see if that works for you.

Are you doing anything about the problem of ToffeeWeb it's taking ages to post with various comma's, full stops and Capital Letters coming into the posts without me putting them there, the column takes more time getting it to appear and being honest my wrist is bleedin' aching from have to correct the post erasing letters that have a mind of their own.

Have you had a good look at that dickhead of a word checker you employ, has he gone completely out of his skull and creating these problems.

Or being honest, is it just me and my iPad is out of control?

Sounds like it could be an issue with OiS or iOS, can never remember what it is on an iPad so if Mike is reading this, are you are on an iPad? Dave, I think that's where the server issue is coming from.

Takes forever to type a word in on iPad.

The site doesn't seem, to like Safari on Apple machines, so I tend to use Chrome.

Although what I tend to do is write up on a word document and do cut and paste.

I was going to say it was divine retribution for Dave being so down on Carlo and the utter genius that was James Rodriguez.

Can't believe it's affecting you as well, Brian.

He has No responsibility to supporters / fans. He can effectively destroy the club fiscally (and therefore from the league) putting it out of business, should he choose.

777 put down a sum which gave them 'Exclusivity' over purchasing Everton. Like a deposit on a house so no one else can buy it whilst legalities are formalised.

Hence Moshiri is not engaged in conversation with others to step in because that would breach contract. 777 had to meet certain obligations during the exclusivity period, they failed. One being to repay the MSP loan.

Moshiri has complicated everything by getting loans from numerous sources when his credit with one was maxed out. 777 were supposed to pay off the Moshiri loan from MSP as part of the exclusivity deal, but were unable to. Hence MSP being put in a position to legally foreclose and take over Everton.

We were sold out to crooks long ago. It started with hamperman Johnson. Then the loathsome narcissistic charlatan Kenwright. Then his launderer and cretin Moshiri who is a front for Usmanov.

777 is a Ponzi scheme. Straight fraud.

Usmanov a Russian ally of Putin who has indirect access to UK movers and shakers via Moshiri. Moshiri does what he is told. He has to maintain a modicum of interest in the club. He has nowhere to hide if he doesn't.

Pl are in theory owned equally by all pl clubs under the guise of The FAPL who manage and administer their product. This has not been an equal or fair governance.

Everton are unlikely to go into administration because the sums owed are massive and somewhat recoverable. Creditors would lose far more by doing so.

In reality the exclusivity should be allowed to lapse and new investors sought. But as we are owned by a crook who is owned by a crook.

Thanks for you trying to help, I am on an iPad but I haven't a clue how it operates but it certainly takes much longer to post an article now than it did a week ago, that's how long the problem has lasted and being honest it's took me well over ten minutes to write this simple post with all the alterations I've had to make caused by different letters coming and going.

Brian do you think a solicitors letter to Michael would help getting his arse moving over this?

I'm having a hard time typing on my iPad. Do we have gremlins? I might have to revert to my old typewriter if this continues.

Thanks a bunch for that. Worked a treat. I must have been typing something wrong to get the 404 error. (I think I might not have typed the full address).

Apologies, Jack, if you read my post.

If these reports are correct, surely he must be heading a Consortium of some kind

Some days, it's really bad. I use a Samsung Android phone – as I've said to Lyndon, all the other apps and search engines work fine, so I don't know what's happening unfortunately.

I'll second that post, Billy, no messing it's very annoying. A dozen words in that first sentence and they are literally crawling through one letter every few seconds and that's the truth.

I'm developing a stammer because of it!

Sound familiar?

It's a murky world out there. Legal or illegal? It often depends on how good your lawyer is.

Until Everton are owned at least in part by the fans, it will always be open to scoundrels.

Otherwise, he's going to have to fund it himself?

That's what we all want, Tony. Hopefully they still exist and one or a group of them is primed to swoop in as soon as the 777 ‘courtship' is terminated.

My (admittedly jaded) view is that modern business practice now includes essentially parasitical behaviour, designed to appeal to and then exploit typical human frailties such as impatience, vanity, jealousy, gluttony and lack of discernment.

Hopefully we (the club and the fans) can avoid becoming an expected cash cow for someone indiscriminately acquiring assets.

Moshiri doesn't personally owe 777, R&MF, MSP, or Metro Bank a single penny. The debt is on the Club.

Moshiri himself has something like £400+ million interest-free loan into the Club.

Fair enough... but at this stage, he is the one making the financial decisions concerning the club, is he not?

Although MSP appear to me to be in a strong negotiating position.

The debt is on the club, not Moshiri. He doesn't have to pay anyone a penny even.

You want to keep saying he does, type away.

"You want to keep saying he does, type away."

I don't - I have probably just failed to express myself correctly.

He has moved onto the potential takeover party who has kept him in control and his backers. There is no current direct legal or regulatory process to challenge his control.

Teneo's possible involvement if reports are correct is an attempt by Moshiri to get a creditors agreement in place to restructure debt. I doubt it is to restructure the current regime at Everton. Something he has never been interested in. But the creditors as part of the agreement could insist that this is gone.

Adminstration would mean there is less money to sort out creditors. The threat of that could be used to get the creditors to the table. A lot depends on what MSP Sports Capital do if their outstanding monies are not paid.

They may be already insisting on a form of restructuring, but Moshiri is still maintaining control. He has lost some control since his preferred 777 Partners have proved unreliable.

An attempt will be made to look at staying within PSR but this slipped a bit in the 2022-23 financial year. There is also the need to address future funding after the present tranche has run out.

Everton Football Club Co Ltd is a private limited company. Limited by shares. Limited by liability to the company only.
It is its own separate entity in law, both legally and financially.
Shareholders are paid after-tax profits each financial year. Whether they take them is a matter for themselves. If there are no profits, they get nothing.

If they are in the red, then they do not have to put in their own money or assets.

Being "limited" means that the owner and / or shareholders cannot be sued for outstanding debt, only the Club itself (ie normally the secretary or CEO are answerable).

So does Moshiri stand to lose money if Everton go bankrupt?

Yes & No.

Yes because it is his capital that purchased the club, ie, his own personal wealth. Plus any other he has since added. All of that could be lost with creditors taking priority when all assets are sold off.

No because Everton is a private limited company and any debts are limited to cash and assets of the club. He is not personally liable to pay off the club's debt.

He needs Everton to stay afloat.

Let's face facts, Usmanov didn't make his money through brilliant financial acumen and Moshiri was always a convenient 'respectable' front for him.

Bill saved the club from crocodiles and handed it to sharks. The sharks are now throwing us into the volcano.

A vacuum created by Moshiri's silence and lack of leadership is ruining this club.

Seriously, this is a complete mess and a very worrying mess. No easy Moshiri - 777 solution, we need to be well away from their debt laden, cash absent, pyramid scheme.

For some reason, Moshiri won't let go of 777… he will have to be forced to. Come in, MSP and R&MF – your loan entitles you to.

The rumours of ‘white knights' are just that, rumours. Nothing substantiated, nothing surfaced.

This needs urgent solution or next season will look and feel a lot worse than this one. Just when we were feeling some relief….

If MSP don't want to control the club, take up the option so you can pass it on to others than do and can offer a better solution to that of 777 Partners.

I'm hearing these Yanks are still standing by their beds, so this gives me hope that there's at least one other party who are still trying to purchase Everton despite all the problems.

Once they get past the problems though and look at the new stadium that is nearly ready and waiting, then maybe Everton will end up being a bargain. Who knows?

The major problem here is the valuation placed on the club. That valuation appears to be a combination of clearance of debt and leaving something left over for Moshiri to set against the cost of equity he has sunk into the club – somewhere in the region of £600M to £750M. As a consequence, that valuation is way too high.

A recent comparator is Newcastle United. When they were sold for £360M, they were bumbling along towards the bottom of the Premier League (but with potential to be far better), enjoying the benefit of a sizeable, dedicated fanbase, and had a fit-for-purpose (if somewhat odd looking) ground.

When the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock is finished, we'll have a better ground but all other attributes will be similar. I would argue that a buyer wouldn't place a ~£300m premium on Everton. That will be the reason why no other potential buyers have come forward – hard-nosed business sense.

However, if 777 Partners are out of the equation, just perhaps that brings the valuation back into the realms of realism. Without that, neither MSP nor any of the other debt holders will be interested.

Full story will follow in @JosimarFotball

Just let this takeover go ahead and we'll disappear down the plughole without a trace...

777 are basically threatened with repossession and will have to act very quickly to avoid escalation.

Moshiri wanted his money back. No one was going to pay it. He knew 777 were fraudsters running a complicated multi million £££ Ponzi scheme. After all, he is a crook.

Legitimised through establishing ownerships in other businesses, hedge funds and football clubs throughout the world. 777 are a perfect fit.

They would pay him and get Everton in return. I believe he thought they would pass the Premier League ownership test. Hell, who doesn't? Then he would be well gone when the 777 house of cards collapsed.

He must have shat blue bricks when the Premier League actually demanded certain proof and making payments on the new stadium.

The ruse was being rumbled so 777 (being a Ponzi) had to secure further finance because the well was drying out.

To get the money they need, they have to borrow but they are maxed out. Hence when they were rejected they were downgraded from AAA to a C.

Then recently they have used collateral already used on another loan, to secure the funding they require, which is duplicitous and illegal. And / or said such existed, falsifying documents in order for proof so that they can obtain that money. Hence the present lawsuit.

As Moshiri's plan is falling apart, he still needs to keep the club afloat if he has any hope of getting his money back.

So, amongst the 777 failings, he has borrowed from a number of others. Thus complicating his lot and moreover, the club's finances.

Who on earth knows what grotesque resolution will end this sorry saga???

I think they are doing us a massive favour and I hope 777 get the thumbs down sooner rather than later.

Is there a deadline or can this just roll on and on? What a terrible situation we are in.

I am sure people like Wyness who is always speculating on NewsNow about our sale reads ToffeeWeb because, two days after I mentioned Tim Cahill and the Qatari connection, he was quoted on NewsNow speaking about the same suggestion.

This all stems from you.

Philip #97, MSP would most definitely want to control the club. They tried to buy it last year. They're not a loan company, they're an acquirer, and I have believed all along that their stadium loan is a wedge in the door to eventually take over the club. Absent all evidence, I still believe so.

From Josimar: "The two main creditors of 777 Partners in Belgium are asking for the seizure of all assets held by the US investment fund in the country after it failed to respect payment deadlines."

Josimar: The Repo Men

He's called it regarding 777 since the very beginning and has never believed the deal will happen. Let's wait and see… but his understanding of financial matters is rather more nuanced than most of the rest of us.

This "777 Cash" was being handed out at their last game.

[I'm not on Twitter either. But you can see what's at the link below without needing to log-in.]

Come on, you sun-kissed beauts!!! Find a cheeky £500M behind the couch cushion and get the blues up the league!!!

The Emptyhad is a library on most weeks. We must have so much untapped potential, it's unreal!!!

Brian (101), unfortunately they don't even have to sanction the takeover to hurt us – which would actually implicate them if the new owners then proved they weren't actually fit and proper – just keep the club stagnating in our current limbo position until Moshiri flinches and dumps the 777 bid for something viable (or puts the club in administration).

Such recovery experts can only be brought in by creditors who have financial creditability. This excludes both Moshiri and 777 Partners. Anyone that they are associated with for the job, such as Teneo or Gada Luna are questionable and will be unacceptable to creditable creditors... Any other potential backers of finance are just distractive PR press releases by parties trying to gain credibility lost.

It is only after corporate recovery or admistration that Everton becomes a viable takeover target. Otherwise, it is an asset-stripping job, a carve-up to recover outstanding creditor monies, and what is left of Everton Football Club may be sold. It will take the present financial fog or noise to clear a bit for the correct process to begin.

I was told yesterday that these Americans are still very confident of purchasing Everton, Jerome, but the date keeps getting pushed back, for whatever reason.

It's obvious that even Moshiri can't continue with these vultures any longer, so when do you think we can start to get excited about our future?

The thing that I am wary of is Everton getting caught up in court proceedings, which are often baseless to start with.

He has paid probably in the region of £400M to £500M for shares. (There was a shares reissue.) Add in all the running cost losses, stadium costs and loans outstanding, and it's around another £350M to over £400M.

Then there is this season to add… well, probably subtract.
It is believed he wants either £400M or £500M. That would be for the club and not all the new stadium debt which would come with it. Loans too. It's a mess.

I think it is safe to say that a break-even figure for Moshiri would be around £1.1B. So who would pay that for a crumbling club teetering on the brink of insolvency and obscurity???

A club so not famous it doesn't register on the radar of Europeans, let alone worldwide football fans. No-one in their right mind is going buy Everton for less than half what Moshiri is believed to be asking.

Other than the crooked 777 Partners, who may not feature for much longer if a number of court decisions are realised.

Moshiri is the Chris Grayling of football. A complete and utter disaster. Financially, professionally and football(y – new word invented).

Every Evertonian is at a loss as to where the hell our wonderful club will be this time next year. Without Moshiri and without 777 Partners is the best that we can hope for.

The niggling nightmare being we could be without a football team with squad numbers dwindling and a dearth of talent in the academy.

Are there sufficient ridiculously rich blues on the planet who could form a conglomerate and rid us of this troublesome accountant?