Here's one of my favourite bits from investigator Robert Eringer:
Then Eringer addressed the Prince's earlier request for information on one Kenneth Anderson, a British national who had apparently represented himself as the owner of Vantis PLC, which desired to purchase shares in Monaco's football team.
Piers determined that Vantis was not owned by Anderson, who was merely an accountant used by Vantis as a proxy for purchasing companies. He learned through sources that Anderson, by reputation, was "a dodgy, third-string footballers agent who occasionally turns up to make a deal with other peoples money and it always falls through." Anderson had many dissolved companies to his name, and those still current had neglected their obligation to file company accounts.
Vantis PLC was actually owned by a UK national named A.L.R. "Bob" Thornton, also an accountant. Morton founded Morton, Thornton, an accounting firm that owned Vantis. Morton also owned a trust investment vehicle called Southwind Ltd, based in the British Virgin Isles. For its investment deals, Vantis used money belonging to its wealthy clients whose identities were shielded. Hence, Vantis was a nominee front.
Eringer and Piers recommended that the Prince request Vantis to declare precisely from whom such investment funds would emanate, along with the specific routing of such funds. He could then investigate such a declaration to ensure its veracity.
Result: No Vantis investment in ASM football.
I also like this from when Anderson was trying to get involved with Ipswich:
After the meeting, TWTD asked chief executive Derek Bowden to explain the situation with Vantis, who were represented by Ken Anderson, a licensed players' agent: “He approached the club together with James in the summer and spoke the chairman about the potential for investment and wanted us to sign an engagement letter with a 6% finder's fee, we having already signed an engagement letter with another merchant bank [understood to be Seymour Pierce – TWTD].
“At that time we were marketing the club quite heavily around the world and we took the view that a 6% finder's fee for an unnamed potential investor who may or may not have been there was not a good use of our money. That could have resulted in a seven-figure fee being paid to an intermediary, which we didn't feel was the right thing to do at that time. We felt that if a would-be purchaser was out there, then they could have picked up the phone to the chairman, as Marcus Evans did.
“Everyone on the planet who was interested in football would have known the club was for sale and we took the view that if someone was really interested then they would approach us and that we shouldn't be paying exorbitant intermediary fees on a speculative basis, which is what it would have been.
“It wouldn't be untypical for someone to agree their own terms of engagement and then, having got those agreed, try and find a buyer for the club.
“We signed an exclusivity agreement with Marcus Evans. I didn't speak to Ken Anderson, I've never spoken to Ken Anderson, but he apparently said at that time he had a live buyer, although again didn't reveal who it was. One wonders how many clubs that buyer, if there were a buyer, was being touted to.”
Funny how not a single person who has actually dealt with Toadface has anything but contempt for the man.
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