The co-founder and financial director of the investment firm 777 Partners, which has stakes in soccer clubs such as Hertha Berlin in Germany, Genoa in Italy, Standard Liege in Belgium and Vasco da Gama in Brazil, was accused of fraud worth $500 million before a New York court, the FBI reported in a statement.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and the FBI charged Joshua Wander, co-founder of the firm, with “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and securities fraud.”
As the federal prosecutor alleges in the brief, Wander “used his investment firm, 777 Partners, to defraud private lenders and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars by pledging assets that did not belong to him, falsifying bank statements and making other false statements about 777’s financial condition.”
The FBI indicated that Wander, 44, turned himself in to federal agents this Thursday after appearing in court. Each of the charges of which he is accused could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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777 Partners is an investment fund based in Miami. Its former chief financial officer, Damien Alfalla, pleaded guilty last October to participating in a fraud scheme.
Although the fund’s initial model was based on underwriting and financing structured agreements, its business became more insecure starting in 2018, when it entered sectors such as streaming platforms, airlines and professional sports teams such as Sevilla FC and Genoa CFC, which led the company to incur losses.
The North American investor’s monthly reports gave a positive image of the investment of assets, while, in reality, it had acquired practically no assets and the few securities that were presented as collateral were already committed for other loans or did not even exist, warns the Dutch bank’s lawsuit.
In September last year, it became public that 777 Partners had acquired more than 94% of Everton in Liverpool, but, after almost a year without payments, the deal was cancelled, calling into question the reliability of 777 in other investment deals in football clubs in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany and France.
With information from EFE
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