Present in Cyprus were the complex corporate structures allegedly set up by Christopher Samuelson, the person who "starred" in the new report of the Al Jazeera news network, which was published yesterday and which reveals how football, in this case English, is used for money laundering, again involving Cyprus and the already abolished Cyprus Investment Program (CIP).
Mutual Trust Management Ltd, of which Samuelson is said to be chairman and shareholder, was a shareholder in other companies registered, including in Cyprus, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Bermuda.
On the website of the Registrar of Companies, this company appears under the name Woodbrook Corporate Services Ltd, registered on July 18, 1996 and in liquidation by court order, from March 30, 2021.
The directors are Michael Doherty, Christina Doherty and Senan Mc Gonigle, with Franklin Roosevelt, 152, registered office in Limassol.
Al Jazeera's new report entitled "The men who sell football", is presented by the Network as the prequel to "The Cyprus Papers Undercover", which was published last October, and which was about KEP.
This time, network reporters are posing as representatives of a non-existent, wealthy Chinese man convicted, among others, of money laundering, and come into contact with a middleman named Christopher Samuelson, who, according to reports, one step before the purchase of the English football team Derby County. Samuelson, according to Al Jazeera, has been investigated several times in the past by police authorities in many European countries and the United States for money laundering, but has not been charged.
According to the report, Samuelson, together with his partner, former member of Scotland Yard, Keith Hunter, tell the two covered journalists that they can help them obtain a Cypriot passport for the Chinese investor, in order to deceive the English football authorities. , saying that this has been done many times in the past with people of Indian, Ukrainian, Russian and Nigerian descent and that the whole process is seamless ("the process is seamless").
In both the video and the last of the three audio documents accompanying the article, Samuelson introduces Hunter to the two journalists as the man who can bring them into contact with high-ranking officials in Cyprus who can secure a Cypriot passport. for the Chinese investor.
"We have done this many, many times with people who, I can assure you, were in a worse position than your boss," they told reporters.
Reference is made to the case of a Russian businessman, for whom Interpol had issued a "red warning" and who obtained a Cypriot passport with the help of a Minister of the Cypriot Government, who allegedly traveled to the Consulate General of the Republic of Cyprus in London for this purpose. .
"The Minister who will help us has come from Cyprus. We will have a discussion about what is the best way to do it ", Keith Hunter appears to be telling the two journalists.
The report mentions Cyprus as one of the few EU countries that sells "golden passports" for investments and more specifically, that within the framework of the KEP one could obtain a Cypriot passport and access to Europe with an investment of 3 million dollars. It is noted in the report that people who have been convicted or prosecuted are excluded from the program.
Then the events unfold as we saw in the first report of the Network "The Cyprus papers undercover", where the two journalists covered travel to Cyprus and meet with, among others, a then Member of Parliament, a well-known lawyer and a high-ranking government official. who allegedly, through the report, expressed their desire to help the Chinese investor obtain a Cypriot passport, changing his name, in exchange for an investment of 10 million Euros.
Source: KYPE