I got told about it by someone a couple of days ago but that's the first time I've seen it in print. Well we know where a few million came from don't we, which would be easy for the NCA to track down but seriously it really does make me think all kinds of things especially because of the reason why 'Unexplained wealth orders' were initially brought in in the first place and the fact they've gone after him an who's an English national I believe.

The first time the law were used, was when they went after the wife of that dodgy jailed Azerbaijani banker Jahangir Hajiyev, she spent £16 million at Harrods, including £600,000 in one day and owns property worth 22 million. The NCA haven't used the law that much from what I can make out but it's still early days. He's in good company though, a Northern Irish women is being looked at for 3.2 million pounds, one down in London worth 80 million in property and one up North for 10 million. Ateotd if they can use this power and law to make dodgy rich people explain where large chunks of money have suddenly have appeared, I'm all for it, as long as it's done properly and fairly, Criminals have been getting away with it for far too long, making millions from say drugs, then before we know it buying a mansion, when they've no real way of showing where the cash came from and don't have the job to put them there.

I talked to someone about the law last year and they were a bit undecided how it will be implemented, especially concerning foreigners and how they explain their money, it may not be straight forward and then to make a proper connection to organised crime is going to no easy task. But we live in a world where just about everything legit leaves a paper trail, so shouldn't be impossible.

Hopefully the NCA will give the sale of BV to him a good coat of looking at. With the club allegedly informed not to put a bid in.

No doubt details of the investigation will be in the public domain at some point to comb over.

I can't see any benefit to Trinity with any of this.
Surely they will have agreed and signed a contract for the purchase of BV.
Any opinions as to whether or not it was a good deal are just irrelevant.

Me neither, be great though if a certain ex-council top guy type person was perhaps in some way involved and got what's coming to him, we can but dream.

He was just one of the turds in the stadium punch bowl, glad he's out of the picture.

We’ve had no news on the ground redevelopment since the London last game of season. Could this criminal investigation be part of the reason for no news. I also wonder where this unexplained wealth came from, possible land developers, some of those people make millions from land deals.

As others have said I doubt it'll have any effect on us, I don't know though. Just glad there's one less (imo) dodgy money grabber out of the equation, shame it came at an over inflated cost for the ground - but silver linings and all that.

You couldn't write it. We are all set to buy the ground at a decent price and then after being advised not to by a stadium guru, who then sets up his own community trust and then its snapped up and relisted at a huge profit by what seems to be a frontman for a crime syndicate?

Why always us!

88M paid a reported 600K in 2016 for it, in 2019 The club took out a loan for 3 million to buy it hopefully the NCA will look at the purchase by and the sale of it. if it was purchased for the reported amount and with unexplained wealth then sold to the Council for a higher sum then that could possibly be seen as the proceeds of crime the Council and the club may be perceived as victims from an organisational sense.

If you purchase a stolen car that has had the plates changed the car is normally returned to the original owner leaving the new purchaser without an asset and a loss of the price paid, are we to loose ownership of the stadium good gawd it couldn't get any worse.

He didn't nick the stadium, he bought that legitimately as far as I can see.

They are investigating where his money comes from not how he spends it. I'm fairly sure the woman who spent 3 million at Harrods hasn't had to hand it back. If guilty I assume the Crown seizes the goods as part of the assets as a way of a fine. They don't seize the assets that someone else has bought from them in the meantime, the economy would collapse if that were the case. So long as 88M paid the Auction house and we paid 88M then as far as I can see we are in the clear.

However, this stadium saga has more twists than an episode of Dynasty so anything is possible and if there is ever going to be a fall guy for this it's bound to be us

he may of bought it with illegal gains of does dirty money become clean money over night

Yeah, I get that but unlike the car example, he didn't actually steal it ie all those involved had no reason to believe BV was stolen because technically it wasn't.

That said I'm no lawyer so I can't say for certain you're wrong, I wish I could, just doesn't sound likely to me.

Any GENUINE legal eagles on here, I think Slugger comes from that background?

So £3m goes back to Trinity/WMDC. Asset gets returned to the BOI, Trinity purchase the site from the BOI for £600k plus whatever was paid for superbowl. Job done.







If only.....

I actually think it was a steal at that price they paid for it, I'm still waiting for oil to spurt out of the middle of the pitch

Nobody in his business makes that much money without shafting someone along the way, they ought to strip him and his parasite mates of everything.

Nice opportunity for someone to start a negative thread on TotalRL Forum though?

Agreed, BLM!!!!



Pity it had to be us.

So just to be clear, he is being investigate.
He hasn't been charged with anything.
There is nothing in the article about the issue relating to us and I can't see he has done anything wrong there.

You can't post accusations or imply he has done anything guilty on here until its proved and in the public domain.

He is subject of an unexplained wealth order he now has to prove that his money is was ligitimate in building up his property portfolio. Unlike normal criminal cases the onus is not on the authorities to prove the finances are light but on the subject of the order. Like the Proceeds of Crime Act this can be seen as Draconian legislation as it reverses the burden of proof. All assets identified assets I believe will be frozen until proof that they were funded ligitimately if not they will be retained by the authorities I presume.

These new orders came into play after I left the CPS but my legal gut feeling tells me that it shouldn't impact on the club.

They want to know where his wealth has come from. Well, one answer is "I screwed a local rugby club by making them give me 3 million for an asset I'd picked up for 600k". That explains 2.4million!

But freezing his assets would not involve the club. He has no assets tied up with the club. They don't go back and undo all the deals. They just freeze his current assets, which thankfully no longer include Belle Vue. Going back to the banker's wife, do you think someone had the job of taking the jewellery back to Harrods and getting a refund? Of course not. What they can do is freeze assets and say "if you want them unfreezing, explain where they came from".

If he still owned Belle Vue, that would be a different issue, particularly if the club was involved in purchasing it, as they would then be trying to purchase a frozen asset.

My legal gut feeling is that there is nothing to see here, but maybe we dodged a bullet by a year or so.

Agreed, whatever he has done, or not as the case may be, it has no bearing on the club at all imo, how could it. As you say the law is all about freezing his coin, then relieve him of it if he can't explain where he got either his initial money to set him up, or if he's been continually been getting gains from sources he can't legally explain, not retrospectively reversing or interfering in past financial dealings.

I'm a bit surprised some people may make that leap especially if they read up on what the law is and what it's about. Like you say though if this had happened a year/18 months ago it would be a different kettle of fish and would have been a huge headache for the Club and fans to say the least.

It's only of interest to us because he owned the ground for a short time, then we bought it back, plus if your into a bit of true crime, the fact he's one of the few people that the NCA have gone after using 'McMafia law' and the first with links to organised crime.

There was an article in the DM last July which I believe is now Hussein. Back when it was originally reported, it just referred to a northern man and a 10 million pound property empire and they were looking into him due to his suspected links to criminal activity, which now he's been named seems obviously him, so they've been looking into him for quite some time.
[urlhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7260691/Businessman-ordered-reveal-funds-10million-empire-use-McMafia-laws.html[/url

Thanks Slugger.

Like a lot of people on here I’m very good at sounding like I know what I’m talking about then I realise I don’t! Always good to get expert knowledge or pretty close.

I've just read the Criminal Finances Act 2017 and what stands out is the present tense. It talks about property he "holds", not "holds or has held". That is the significant part for me. If it was meant to dig into the past, it would include the past tense.

I presume this is because to go into past assets could prejudice those who presently hold the assets disposed of in the past (Wakefield Trinity), but also because any sums received would be held or used to buy something else, so they go after the "something else".

What the Act does is beef up the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. If there is a legitimate source of his money, his accountant will explain it.

Before an order can be made, however, the High Court has to be satisfied:
1. He holds the asset and it is worth over £50,000
2. There are reasonable grounds to suspect that the known sources of his lawfully-obtained income would not cover those assets
3. Crucially, there are reasonable grounds to suspect that either he, or someone connected to him, has been involved in serious crime in the UK or elsewhere

I wonder if Manni Hussain`s contacts at WMDC will be feeling a little embarrassed presumably investigations will be made re due diligence etc, maybe Peter Box will have the answers . There seems to be a bit of a theme to this sort of thing I read that the Penny Appeal director is been investigated by the charities commission, I presume that this is the same Penny Appeal that purchased the Thornes Park College site from WMDC. It makes you wonder who are the people who are making the introductions , recommendations etc to the council.