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Laurence Bassini, the former owner of Watford Football Club, is threatening to wind up Charlton Athletic FC over an alleged unpaid debt. Mr Bassini's company Bloom Properties Ltd today served a statutory demand on the Division One club's holding company Charlton Athletic Football Company Ltd under the Insolvency Act, giving it 21 days to satisfy the debt of more than £1.7 million, including interest. The final payment had been due in August 2020, according to the demand which has been seen by the Jewish Telegraph. Mr Bassini's lawyer, Will Osmond, told the Jewish Telegraph that
his client's company was owed the funds by Charlton's former chairman Matthew Southall as an 'introducer's fee' agreed with Mr Bassini to help him purchase a majority stake in the football club. Mr Southall then entered into an agreement with Bloom Properties to transfer the debt to Charlton which took responsibility for its repayment, which thus far it has not."
Copied above for those not on FB.
Now that we believe / know Southall was seen in April at Spotland with Curran, Jarvis & seemingly Bottomley - is there a chance a similar tactic was intended at Dale? & if so, who could've stood to benefit?
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Our Charlton friends on 16:45 - Feb 11 with 6707 views
It would be good to think that CAFC can mount an argument that the act of binding a company in such a way as to make the company liable for this ludicrous sum is an act both of misfeasance and breach of fiduciary duty by the company officer (or former company officer) that undertook the act of binding the company in that way.
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Our Charlton friends on 17:03 - Feb 11 with 6657 views
Laurence Bassini, the former owner of Watford Football Club, is threatening to wind up Charlton Athletic FC over an alleged unpaid debt. Mr Bassini's company Bloom Properties Ltd today served a statutory demand on the Division One club's holding company Charlton Athletic Football Company Ltd under the Insolvency Act, giving it 21 days to satisfy the debt of more than £1.7 million, including interest. The final payment had been due in August 2020, according to the demand which has been seen by the Jewish Telegraph. Mr Bassini's lawyer, Will Osmond, told the Jewish Telegraph that
his client's company was owed the funds by Charlton's former chairman Matthew Southall as an 'introducer's fee' agreed with Mr Bassini to help him purchase a majority stake in the football club. Mr Southall then entered into an agreement with Bloom Properties to transfer the debt to Charlton which took responsibility for its repayment, which thus far it has not."
Copied above for those not on FB.
Now that we believe / know Southall was seen in April at Spotland with Curran, Jarvis & seemingly Bottomley - is there a chance a similar tactic was intended at Dale? & if so, who could've stood to benefit?
Matt Southall involved in a wind up? You couldn't make it up!
These maggots are no more than opportunists and chancers. They are trying to 'play the system' to enrich themselves. From what I read elsewhere, there is not a shred of documentary evidence to show that any of these so-called 'fees' were ever lawfully incurred and no invoices or correspondence exists to show that they were requested to carry out any such work.
It looks like another attempt to scare people into 'coughing-up' money that they don't owe, simply by trying to frighten them by forcing them to take part in the expensive Court system.
Call their bluff and let them show incontrovertible evidence that they are owed this money. Then see what happens.
“It is easier to fool people, than to convince them that they have been fooledâ€
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Our Charlton friends on 17:32 - Feb 11 with 6566 views
Bassini was declared bankrupt in 2007 following the failure of his business The Fox at Ibstone near High Wycombe, which he blamed on his father. During this bankruptcy he changed his name to Bassini to have a “fresh start”.
In 2011 Bassini was introduced to buy Watford by Keith Harris, the investment banker bidding to buy Portsmouth, challenging the Pompey Supporters Trust, and took over Watford Football Club for £440,000 on 31 May 2011, when the club’s previous parent company Watford Leisure PLC was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and became Watford Leisure Limited. He became director of Watford Association Football Club Ltd and of Watford Leisure Ltd.
Bassini’s time at Watford was marked by allegations of financial impropriety, culminating in the ‘Safegate’ scandal when just prior to the sale of the club in June 2012 Bassini called the police after an employee refused to hand him the keys to the club safe.
On 29 June 2012, Bassini sold Watford Football Club to Gino Pozzo, son of Giampaolo Pozzo and owner of Udinese and Granada, and in November 2012 it was announced the£1.5 million Bassini owed to Watford Football Club for ‘cash advances’ was unlikely to be repaid. In March 2013 an independent disciplinary commission found Bassini guilty of misconduct and dishonesty over financial dealings on behalf of Watford and banned him from being involved in a position of authority with any Football League club for three years. The commission found he had been “dishonest in his dealings with the league and with his fellow directors” and “practised secrecy and deception” when he told neither the league nor the other members of the Watford board about his secret forward financing arrangements.
In July 2013 Bassini had another business failure when the High Court ordered his company Watford Leisure Limited be placed in liquidation, and in March 2014 Bassini lost a High Court battle against the Russo brothers. The former Watford F.C. directors claimed that they were owed more than £3.5 million by Bassini. He was ordered to pay the sums of £3.5 million and £135,000 (plus an additional £568,000 in interest and £150k in costs); a total of £4,353,000. He was told that he could not appeal. During the trial, in which he was described as ‘evasive’ and a maker of ’empty threats’, the court heard Bassini had made numerous accusations of conspiracies against him without providing any evidence.
In June 2014 Bassini was made bankrupt for the second time. The bankruptcy order was made after Bassini failed to pay the sum of £37,500. During the hearing Bassini claimed not to own any property despite receiving over £1.5 million in cash advances from Watford FC during his tenure. There was a meeting of creditors in August 2014 , and the bankruptcy was still in effect in November 2016 when Trustees were appointed It appears the bankruptcy was finally discharged by August 2017 when Bassini was appointed as a director of three companies.
Bolton Wanderers FC and Charlton Athletic FC
On 17 April 2019 it was announced that Bassini had agreed to take over financially troubled EFL Championship club from Ken Anderson, to save the club from Administration , and this undated Sky Sport video interview appears to refer to this event. Only three weeks later it was reported Bassini’s takeover was on the “brink of collapse” after a repeated failure to provide proof of funds to the English Football League. On 8 August 2019 Bassini won a court order blocking the sale of Bolton Wanderers to Football Ventures. His efforts were eventually unsuccessful, with Football Ventures securing the completion of the sale on 28 August 2019.
On 19 April 2019 Matt Southall was photographed with Bassini in the directors’ box at Bolton during the Bolton Wanderers v Aston Villa match , and on 26 Aug 2019 Southall came to an agreement with Bassini concerning the purchase of CAFC. This came to light in the form of a letter dated 12 March 2020, the day after Matt Southall was evicted from the Valley boardroom, addressed to Matt Southall at Charlton Athletic Football Club, from lawyers acting for Bloom Properties Limited (BPL) a company of whom Laurence Bassini is the only director.BLP Letter 13 March 2020.pdf1.2M
Some key points from the letter are:
In section 5 of the letter it states that Southall and Bassini have been associates for “many years” and were involved together in the purchase of Bolton Wanderers. In section 7 it states that Bassini introduced Southall to CAFC as Bassini had previously been in discussions to buy the club from Roland Duchatelet (RD) Bassini states that Southall agreed to pay a fee to Bassini if Southall bought Charlton Athletic Section 8 refers to an agreement dated August 2019 made between Southall (in a personal capacity) and BPL to pay £1.25m plus VAT to BPL should the purchase of CAFC be completed. Note the client is “Matt Southall (East Street Investments)” In section 10 there is a transcript of a Whatsapp message in which Southall messages Bassini “I need your help to close Charlton this week Laurence. Big dough in it for us” In sections 14 and 15 Bassini mentions the novation (shifting) of personal debt to Bassini from Southall to Charlton Athletic Football Club as Southall was not a “man of significant means”. Southall could not pay in one instalment and that the debt would instead be paid by CAFC In section 18 Bassini states that Southall offered Bassini a permanent role at CAFC as a means of paying the debt In Section 20 the lawyers seem to suggest the novation (shifting) of the debt “suits your (Southall’s) personal interests” and it may also in breach of Southalls duties to CAFC as a director. There is also a mention of recent media related to CAFC which might well be the boardroom eviction the night before. In sections 24, 26 and 28 LB states that the debt due at that time (13 March 2020) is £606,507.03 and that the interest on the debt is 8.25% of £113 per day. In March 2020 Bassini was reported to be interested in buying EFL League Two club Oldham Athletic, but this was quickly labelled as “false” It is unknown whether this had anything to do with the very public falling out between Southall and CAFC’s other owner, Nimer, and the above letter, or is a pure coincidence of timing. However, in May 2020 it was revealed Bassini had a provisional agreement to buy Charlton Athletic for £1.2 million . This did not progress; he pulled out of the deal on May 27 due to problems stemming from Roland Duchatelet owning the freehold of The Valley and Charlton’s Training Ground. Instead Bassini decided to look into taking legal action against Bolton in an attempt to unravel their takeover and gain control of the club as it was revealed he had in fact officially owned Inner Circle Investments, the company that owned Bolton Wanderers at the time, after Ken Anderson had agreed to sell the club to him.
Does anyone find it a coincidence that Charlton face a court action, at the same time as the Dale face court action from Southall (Bassini's friend) and MH, if I was cynical I would suggest that it may be planned by the shysters/
Bassini appears like shyster like Southall and the others, he seems to takeover clubs for his own personal bank balance. If he lent the money to Southall with the knowledge that he did have a pot to p*ss in, and they looked to past the debt on to Charlton is morally wrong. The Debt belongs to Southall, not Charlton FC and we should support the Charlton fans in fighting Bassini.
That is why we fought to stop Curran, MH and Southall taking over the Dale, because they would likely pass the debt of purchasing the club onto the Dale books and to quote Southall "make some dough" out of the club. In the same way Southall sought to use Charlton as a cash cow to support his lifestyle. So Bassini who took money out of Watford is now seeking to take 1.7 million off Charlton, if these people succeeds, who is next?
The EFL must look into the business and financial activities, and tighten the rules to ensure that these people are banned from football and football clubs. We have Curran friend Power who at Swindon who did pay the ground rent or other bills, but took money out of the club, with the club struggling to survive. We have Day and Dale activities at Bury FC, we have seen what happen to Macclesfield Town who went out of business, because the debts were not paid, despite suggestions that the owner took thousands out of the club to support his lifestyle and business activities.
It is important that Rochdale and Charlton win their respect court cases and send a message to the EFL, the shysters and everyone else, that football clubs cannot be used as cash cows and people with an history of dissolving businesses or going bankrupt must not be involved in football at all.
Some insolvency law Friday facts 👀: - An unpaid statutory demand does not, without more, permit you to wind up a company; - It is an abuse of process to present a winding up petition on the basis of a disputed debt; - The court will not allow such petitions to proceed. #cafc
As per Charlton's efforts on our behalf, any work that we can do (great work already by judd) to bring the Bassini/Southall claim on Charlton's finances into perspective should be done
In fact, i believe this action by Bassini will further our joint efforts to see off the hostile takeover bastards by providing further evidence of their modus operandi
Not only will they not succeed, they'll be shown in the cold light of justice for what they are, and provide even greater weight to the progress of the Tracy Crouch findings as it starts its legislative progress in parliament. Today's Fair Game update* gives a schedule for this
*From today's Fair Game email:
"Football is on the cusp of a dramatic change. In a few short weeks, we expect the Government to give its official reaction to the Fan-Led Review. The Review has our full support. The content reflects nearly all of the recommendations we made in our manifesto.
Our understanding is that the response will be largely positive, but we cannot be complacent. It will still need to be included in a Queen’s Speech and then clear all the numerous stages in parliament. So it becomes a matter of persuading as many politicians as possible to back us."
I urge everyone to get on board with this. Our own (and Charlton's) issues aside, this is the best bet for ensuring it can never happen again
Our Charlton friends on 22:28 - Feb 11 by HullDale
In a legal document, freely available in the public domain, about Matt Southall,
"... it became apparent that you are not a man of significant means"
ouch.
[Post edited 11 Feb 2022 22:34]
Good one for our friends in the investigations department at the EFL on applying their own rules:
(1) Matthew Southall claims to have bought already 25% of Rochdale in September 2021, but has shown no proof despite claims to the Trust that he has written an open letter to the press and has never been seen at a Rochdale game. The Manchester Evening News have reported it as fact. The EFL has not commented.
(2) There is a question as to Matthew Southall being involved in owing money to Bassini which was transferred onto Charlton Athletic.
(3) The BBC confirm that Southall took action in the High Court against Charlton Athletic for unpaid fees which was defended.
(4) It appears from today events that Bassini is actively pursing Charlton again for money that he things belongs to him and which Southall thinks was transferred to Charlton.
(5) One assumes that the EFL in permitting the transfer of ownership at Charlton during 2020 under the relevant test sanctioned the passing of this personal debt to an EFL club? The club carrying that debt being part of the submission for the buyers.
(6) If not, on what basis did the EFL sign off on Matthew Southall who is described in legal documents is "not a man of significant means"
This looks to be a very serious and unresolved issue at Charlton, on the watch of Matthew Southall.
Over to the EFL....
George Bernard Shaw had it right:
"He who can does; he who cannot, teaches."
https://www.visittheusa.co.uk/
Our Charlton friends on 23:13 - Feb 11 by RAFCBLUE
Good one for our friends in the investigations department at the EFL on applying their own rules:
(1) Matthew Southall claims to have bought already 25% of Rochdale in September 2021, but has shown no proof despite claims to the Trust that he has written an open letter to the press and has never been seen at a Rochdale game. The Manchester Evening News have reported it as fact. The EFL has not commented.
(2) There is a question as to Matthew Southall being involved in owing money to Bassini which was transferred onto Charlton Athletic.
(3) The BBC confirm that Southall took action in the High Court against Charlton Athletic for unpaid fees which was defended.
(4) It appears from today events that Bassini is actively pursing Charlton again for money that he things belongs to him and which Southall thinks was transferred to Charlton.
(5) One assumes that the EFL in permitting the transfer of ownership at Charlton during 2020 under the relevant test sanctioned the passing of this personal debt to an EFL club? The club carrying that debt being part of the submission for the buyers.
(6) If not, on what basis did the EFL sign off on Matthew Southall who is described in legal documents is "not a man of significant means"
This looks to be a very serious and unresolved issue at Charlton, on the watch of Matthew Southall.
Over to the EFL....
Terrible news for Charlton at the moment, but ultimately this could be the key to bringing the walls tumbling down.
What was the new evidence which delayed the EFL investigation into Morton House/Southall?
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Our Charlton friends on 00:39 - Feb 12 with 5728 views
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