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Six Years For Carson
Carson Yeung has been sentenced to six years in prison today after being found guilty on five counts of money laundering. In the meantime, Birmingham International Holdings have pulled out of the deal to sell 12% of BCFC to Beijing Liangzhu after the media company based in the Chinese capital couldn’t come up with the money.
It’s typical isn’t it? I’ve been incommunicado for nearly 24 hours due to flying home from Hong Kong and it all happens around me. I have to admit my complete lack of surprise with relation to Carson’s sentence; I had stated on here a few times he was looking at five to seven years and six is smack bang in the middle of that.
It’s interesting that Gloria Yu, the chief investigator has talked about how the whereabouts of much of the money that was laundered. My friend Shai Oster of Bloomberg wrote this piece which is very comprehensive of some of the issues surrounding the deal and is well worth a read. One would wonder if more arrests will be made surrounding the trial.
In the meantime, BIH have announced to the HKSE that the deal to sell part of BCFC is off. Citing that Beijing Liangzhu have failed to make the initial deposit of HK$10million that was due on Tuesday, BIH have now pulled out and have considered taking legal action. This must have been embarrassing for Victor Ma to sign off, having set up the deal along with Carson without Peter Pannu being “privy” to it. BIH shares remain unchanged at HK$0.21.
I will admit that I am semi-surprised the deal has fallen apart. I’m not surprised that they couldn’t stump up the cash because of the way the company looked like a shell but I am surprised for that exact reason – I thought that there was clearly more to the deal than met the eye. I will confess that if the deal has been scuppered because of the attention brought to it by people like Demetri Sevastapulo of the Financial Times that would make me happy – I would much rather any investor was clearly above board and transparent rather than another dealing that looks like it has the potential to be “difficult”.
Tags: Beijing Liangzhu, BIH, Carson Yeung
83 Responses to “Six Years For Carson”
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what happens now ? we get of our back sides and get down to st andrews tommorow
against QPR and show your discontent and dismay with this current regine and get behind
( or under) the giant flag and scream and shout at the owners in a polite way and support
the team to 3 valuable and long overdue points…thats what the supporters can do then
were leave the rest to the others involved to make these cronnies dissapear for good and
get well out of this city and this football club NOW!!!!! KRO & DNM.
Totally agree with you Dave. There will be a lot of media focus at the ground tomorrow, perfect chance for everyone to make out collective feelings that we will not tolerate the current regime any longer! KRO
not sure if I am right or wrong here but Carson owns 12.6%, The Beijing people or person was going to Purchase 12% (strange that) Then the courts may now look to take his share holding by way as one of his assets, then the sale of said shares fall through (strange that) Its hard not to conclude that if he sold his shares the courts would have his takings away, so he wont sell unless forced to by the courts.
The Bloomberg piece was fascinating. Read like a Hollywood movie script. So with that in mind once Carson has been moved to Stanley prison i’ll be leading a posse of crack Zulu’s to bust him out. He’s a wrongun but he’s our wrongun.
Tip of the iceberg mate… and yes, the OP book is much more of that. :)
That’s what I’ve been working my ass off sorting of late…
ok well keep a chapter free for the break out!
Will do
I will volunteer as part of the breakout squad, I am not a hard Zulu, but I can do the IT stuff, especially if they want to buy some IT equipment from me, that will ‘secure’ the prison! ;-)
I wonder how long it will be before the rest of BIHL distance themselves as much as possible from CY. Dan you may have answered this on an earlier post, but I was wondering can CY still sell the blues now he’s banged up?
Its not his to sell mate.
it’s for BIH to sell Blues, not Carson mate. Always was that way – it’s just how much pull Carson has within BIH…
He has 12.6% as you say dan (maybe 16%) that is a far cry from the 26% or 28% whatever it was he had before the egm..Maybe we should all stop putting so much importance on him and learn a bit more on who really is pulling the strings. PS welcome back Dan bet your knacked.
Erpa
It might just be it is Carson pulling the strings… people think he’s naive and stupid but I assure he is not.
Dan if the courts take his shares as one of his assets on 3rd April, they will then sell them as they wont want to own a football club, so who do you think will legally own Bih and in turn BCFC.. ONCOR PALADINI. and so the circus that is bcfc continues.
Erpa
I would be massively surprised if they managed to confiscate all his assets on April 3. They might be able to start the order, but Carson will have filed an appeal by then (he has until March 31 to appeal) and I would suspect there will be an application to stay that order which would delay it at the very least for a short while.
Thanks Dan, I guess it best to just wait and see if he dose appeal I would also think he will appeal but we can but hope he might just feel like throwing the towel in who knows? and I would imagine it will cost him a arm and a leg and his lawyer said he will be going back from riches to rags.
Erpa
He WILL appeal. I can guarantee that.
Cheers mate
Good riddance to bad rubbish, thats all
Intriguing. And we thought DS and the Golds income was from “interesting” sources. They are positive angels compared to CY! Having said that, I wasn’t really bothered about where they got their wealth from as long as they spent it at Stans.
the football league have been quoted has saying that because
of there is enough money to keep blues going to the end of
the season .they wont interfere …is the media companies
3.5 million included in this assessment .if so will they now step
in …kro
We will have to see what happens now
but i cant see bcfc being sold what ever as bihl need the name.
but there’s so much under the carpet stuff going on
investigations might make the sale of the club a must !! ??
It would be wonderful to see the terraces full of fans again but somehow I doubt that will happen for a long time. It might be interesting to ask the life long fans who haven’t renewed their tickets for the last year or so or those that came down to every match the reason for their withdrawal. I doubt it will be because of the team not performing well . The fans have always been there throughout. I am sure the majority will make reference to Carson Yeung and the board and the little faith they have in them, whilst many will say Lee Clarke has done well considering the situation he has been faced with. Whatever the outcome let’s have our beloved Blues back as a fighting force in football.
I didn’t renew this season for a combination of reasons. I am not a fan of the manager, the mainly very poor performances at home last season which has got even worse this season but mainly the cost. I can’t make the Burnley game unfortunately so I checked how much my old seat would be tomorrow in block 27 – £40!!!! There is no justification for that and I am not paying it on principle. I bet it’s about 13,000 tomorrow because even in the Tilton it’s £30. The ticket pricing is ridiculous down there. I would still say cost is the biggest reason for the low crowds. I bet we get 20,000 against Burnley when it’s £10.
[…] force a sale of his stake, allowing new owners to come in. It also appears to be good news that a 12% stake in the club to Beijing Liangzhu “media company” has fallen through – the club needs the money but selling to what appears to be a shell company is just asking for […]
I can’t revel at another person going to prison, he must be feeling very bad about things. That said, there are questions about money leaving the club and putting us where we are. Hopefully an Oil rich Arab or Russian Oligarch will see the potential in our club?….yeah, in my dreams!
Although CY isn’t the first and won’t be the last to be holed up for money laundering, I’m wondering if he has been made an example of and if 6 years is the going rate #kro
Bluehobba
It’s the going rate
Hi
what grounds would there be for an appeal, going by our laws it would new evidence
or incorrect procedure during trial.
If the appeal is deemed frivolous is it possible the sentence could be lengthened?
Blueviper – this is HK law, not UK law. He can appeal automatically.
Dan,
Do the club have any guarantee that all future revenue will go directly towards keeping the club a float or could PP transfer this money to the holding company in HK?
Art
There is absolutely no sense in not using income generated from the club to keep it going because that club is the only income BIH have at the moment.
Dan,
What about financing the overheads in HK.?
They have to get income somehow to keep the management structure going?
Where is their income coming from?
Not sure – but the point remains Art, they absolutely have to keep the club going because at the moment the company is dead without it.
I know where you’re going with this but I can’t agree with you about boycotting. I’d further point out that just not going a) isnt a proper boycott in that there is no alternative protest involved and b) isnt going to help the team
Dan,
We’ve had the boycotting debate and yes we disagree but I respect your views /so we move on.
I’m just trying to understand the financial structure of the group-assuming revenue from the club is the groups only source of income then their head office overheads must be financed by the revenue generated from the fans/TV and Sponsorship.If I was a sponsor I wouldn’t want to be associated with this lot and know doubt only the hard core fans will renew next year ST.
What a bloody mess and I think more dark days are approaching.
I think that they have obtained some loans to help finance the head office but I see your point and yeah, it’s a good one – I wonder if it will affect commercial revenue
Daniel mate, Welcome home, I hope your trip enabled you to do what you needed to, ?.
Bih, need another addition to their group to therefor allow release of BCFC, So we have to be patient, as much as it hurts,!!.
Is that your take on it,?.
Dan — welcome back and have a pint on me. You must be knackered.
I wonder if the money laundering will affect the Golds and Sullivans who sold the club to CY – bet they’ve got their lawyers all over this.
I’m not sure mate, but it could.
I’m accepting all donations of pints at the ground tomorrow ;)
I just dont understand how he is so heavily involved with the criminal underworld in China and yet the FA do not care his Son and Brother in Law are directors?
More to the point Peter Pannu used to be a copper. Surely his starfish must be twitching now as he is in effect connected too.
What can possibly happen now, surely the FA will want one of their clubs away from this? I would say now is the the time where our media can come into play as the worst in the world, or as this case may be the best?
Nowt to do with the FA mate, it’s the Football League. As I keep saying.
Apologies I meant FL…
Dan, what an excellent article by Shai Oster, it would seem Carson Yeung never stood a chance.
I can feel some sympathy as I feel he has been made a patsy by the real money men of Macau. On saying that, I also think he was very naive and just wanted to play with the big boys. I wonder if he has taken this fall for a substantial pay out for his family, he didn’t appear to be too upset, though you probably saw him at the time of his verdict.
As you and others have said this is not going to be the end, hopefully it is the beginning of the end and that BCFC don’t receive further punishments or sanctions that could hamper any potential sales.
Let us all unite behind the team now and work to rid these parasites from our club.
Welcome home and thanks for all your efforts and many hours toiling to keep us updated throughout the trial both here and from Hong Kong.
KRO+DNM
I dont think Carson is a patsy
Can’t see how he could be so naive after reading the interesting article by your mate though. You were in court and for legal reasons couldn’t state much that was going on, but reading that it would appear the evidence was pretty damning. Also most of the associates he mixed and dealt with seem shady characters too.
Either way justice has been seen to be done, all we need now is a win tomorrow and it will have been a very good week all round.
KRO+DNM
The court case is the tip of an iceberg if you ask me
Thanks Dan, I have to agree, lets just hope that, as far as BCFC is concerned, it is the last we will be involved.
Who else on BIHL’s or BCFC’s boards could be associated with all this funny money that CY laundered and were any of them in receipt of it.
I suppose its a case of watch this space and hope.
Well done again and looking forward to the book.
KRO+DNM
Why do you think he is not a patsy?
Thanks Dan. You’re a star. Interesting that club web site is silent on CY’s sentence
if CY has no power over the club now , how can is son remain a board member , surely board members should bring some area of expertise to a listed company , what can a boy like that know anything that would help the NEW INPROVED CY FREE BIH to grow.The football league are idiots.
The South China Post reports that an anonymous letter of complaint, written in English, triggered the investigation that lead to CY’s conviction.
District Court Superintendent Gloria Yu said the letter was received in 2008, some time after CY acquired a 29.9% stake in Blues, but before he took full control in 2009.
“We did not start the investigation because CY bought the club” Yu said.
“Whether or not the complainant made the report because CY bought the shares, you will have to ask the complainant”.
ALSO The prosecution will apply on April 3 to confiscate some of CY’s assets, about HK$400 million, which was frozen in June 2011.
CY knew exactly what he was doing from day one and has bought misery to our club. I’m out for a meal tonight then home to s**g the mrs, down the Blues tomorrow, few beers later, watch my sons play footy on Sunday then walk the dog. Bliss! What’s CY doing this weekend? Becoming some doods bitch?!!!!!!!!
Ha ha ha quality
So maybe Carson can still have some say in the way then club is run though his family connections maybe.
Is the dirty money in the UK government bank account ?
Article in the telegraph (news now) asks the question was the dirty money used by cy to buy the BLUES,if so sull/gold & the wicked witch used the money then to buy west spam & bid for the Olympic Stadium,Boris Johnston accepted the cockney mobs bid,I hope there’s some arses twitching !!
Goodbye and gold riddance to carson the guy is a disgrace. We need a mega rich owner who can finance us but I cannot see it happening if a someone with big money wanted to buy a midland football club they would be more inclined to look at the vile than us. We are not a big name and dont have the fanbase that a mega rich Arab would want. I hope we are bought by someone with the clubs best interest at heart step forward Palidini !
Considering Blues’ overall lack of success down the years I’d say the club has a pretty good fan base. What are you expecting?
Are people sure that 86% want Paladini? I note QPR (one of the clubs Paladini was involved with) are £177 million in debt. I wouldn’t attempt to say Gianni was personally to blame for all of that but, let’s face it, he and his associates (who of course seem to be as deeply tucked away in the shadows as some of Yeung’s mates) are surely not the people to take Blues forward.
Online surveys mean pish all – very easily manipulated
Do we need a mega rich owner? I’d be happy with someone who ran it properly and helped build a base to make a great club on.
A fair point as the Baggies and Stoke seem to have made just the sort of steady progress (consolidation in Premiership, etc) that has eluded Blues.
Also, has anybody checked out the recent posting on the Blues Trust website?
Stoke are bankrolled by Bet365 mate
Fair enough – I didn’t know that about Stoke. However, surely the Baggies ain’t that awash with loadsa money but they have made solid progress over the last few years in stark contrast to what has happened (and continues to happen) at St Andrew’s.
According to David Sullivan & the Golds 88% of Blues fans wanted them out & Carson in, i for one never wanted Sullivan & Golds out, I seem to remember Sullivan selling the idea to us & telling us Blues Fans Carson was the man to take us forward, so its no wonder that percentage was so high, so now the shite has hit the fan the old regime seem to be trying to justify selling us down the river by referring to a Poll done by a newspaper instead of admitting they sold to a idiot who was willing to pay at least double of its worth, they should just be honest & say they weren’t bothered about us and wanted West Ham no matter of the consequence to our Club. When did they ever spend the sort of money they paid for Andy Carroll when they were at St Andrews?
.. and look how well that’s turned out for them. They certainly haven’t had anywhere near their money’s worth out of him. Maybe they were right not to spend that kind of money on one player all those years… but unfortunately, that’s the nature of the beast in the premier these days.
well Carson you did it, completely fjd things up – i haven’t a pot to piss in but i’m glad i”m not you, you’ve been part of the best ever times and the most worrying long drawn out saga’s ever (that will no doubt drag on for another year). So it could have been worse – at least you’ll never be forgotten in Birmingham.. You will hopefully be out in half the time (? or does 6 years really mean 6 years in HK?) and you are too old to become someones prag in HK jail – so just keep your head down, do your time and live the rest of your life. At least you’re not a boring tosser who has never had a go at anything? OK you broke some laws but tell me which one of the “Mr normal’s” will be remembered in history. BCFC will chug along and someone else will have a go. i reckon you will be welcome in any Brum bar post release – i know i’d buy you a pint! x
Come on, be serious.
Carson could redeem himself with Blues fans if he tried to sell up now. You can understand why he has held on to ownership until being convicted as he hoped he might get off. Any goodwill that remains with fans will quickly dissipate if Pannu and friends hang on with no attempt to sell.
Dan, what we want to know is
1. What do we really know about the new chairman Cheung Shing?
2. How much is he his own man and how much influence does CY still have?
3. How will the laundered money affect the Golds and Sullivan?
4. What can we read into the non-sale of 12% to the advertising firm — was this a cock-up by BIHL or was the new company just rubbish?
5. Will we beat QPR?
1 we don’t know a lot. He’s a mainlander, only speaks Mandarin, involved in oil and linked to the communist party of China.
2 again we dont know
3 down to the police, dont know
4 could be one of a few reasons, dont know for sure
5 I hope so
utbb- so you’d buy a pint for a convicted criminal who has links to individuals and groups involved in:
Money laundering, Contract killing, Prostitution, Counterfeiting, Health care fraud, Drug trafficking, Human trafficking, Extortion, Murder, Arms trafficking, Racketeering. This is not speculation – read the Bloomberg article (thanks Dan) and then search about Triads. Money to be laundered has to come from somewhere doesn’t it?
Carson is not the affable naiive knock-about bloke he sought to portray; he is obviously a very powerful figure in a complex network of people who trusted him with the thing they value most – money. Possibly even “Dragon Head?”
Doc D – re point 3. I reckon any clawing money they knew to be laundered; if indeed it was. There’s a lot of funny money slushing around the world – did you know only 82 individuals control over half of the world’s entire wealth (source: IMF)?? Proving complicity to the crime of money laundering is a very tough call in Westminster law and the people you are trying to claw back funds from have very expensive barristers. Ir’s not as simple as someone selling you a stolen car you didn’t know was stolen; which is then repossessed by the finance company or owner.
The whole thing makes me very sad; not just for our club but for the deficiencies in our society that permit this type of thing to flourish, with weak-kneed authorities looking the other way. Kudos to the Hong Kong justice system for pressing ahead with this – it is a landmark case but by no means the end of the problem, for BCFC or the world..
Sorry, my post decided to drop words. Where I wrote to DocD it should read:
“re point 3. I reckon any clawing back money from G and S they they knew to be laundered from the proceeds of the sale to Grandtop; if indeed it was, would be a very tough call……”
Utbb shows the best of our City. Board and shareholders read his post, be inspired and live by it. Welcome to Birmingham.
G’Day Jack, I’ll agree it’s nice and forgiving and a great Brummie attitude, and I don’t like to see anyone thrown into jail. I just get the feeling this whole thing is a lot bigger than we fans imagine and there’s more nasty shocks to come, maybe to be revealed in Dan’s book(s). Carson handled money for a known Triad boss according to the prosecution. The Triads are not nice. ‘Nuff said. Uttb – I’m not having a go mate; I’d share a few beers with you anyday.
The point I was trying to make earlier about a new owner was we are not seen as a big club because of our trophy count and low gates any rich man looking to invest in a football club would look at other clubs in the midlands first. We have to be realistic we are not as attractive to potential buyers as the vile or even wolves or forest hopefully we will be bought by someone who has some money and will run the club properly and move us forward I and other fans have had enough of carson and his cronies.
It’s a question of how much purchase you put on the “sleeping giant” tag. It is also a question of potential. Blues undoubtedly have the potential to be a half-decent Premiership club but the all-too-real nightmare that currently has such a sickening grip on the club obviously blots out any chance of progress at the very least until the convicted criminal Yeung and his shadowy associates are gone from St Andrew’s.
Also, has anybody considered how Blues came to have the fourth highest home attendances in England in 1973?
Franchise? Excuse me?
Let thee among thee without sin cast the first stone.
Tony chapt 1
A lot of our fans bang on about potential and believe we are a big club but I have been following the blues since the 70s and cant see how we can call ourselves a big club we have never enjoyed any real success and our gates have usually been in the low 20s. Even in the prem we only managed around the mid 20s.Some fans need to realise there are much bigger clubs than us even in the midlands but there is no doubt we should be a premiership club as we are bigger than the likes of albion and stoke who have established themselves in the top division. An owner with some nous and ambition could take us back to the promised land a d make us the club we should be surely that is not to much to ask.
So are you saying Blues don’t have potential? In the early to mid-1970s Blues averaged over 30,000 for home crowds but that potential was never built on and the club went backwards and into serious decline.
More recently, Blues averaged between 28,500 and 29,000 home attendances (i.e virtually the current ground capacity) in their early Premiership years between 2002 and 2004 and the then manager Steve Bruce insisted it was time for Blues to “step up to the next level”.
This meant increased and sustained financial investment into the club and the redevelopment of the old Main Stand to increase the capacity of St Andrew’s to around 35,000. Sullivan and the Gold brothers dithered and made excuses and failed to seize the moment. They were content to “tread water” and the club again went backwards because of a lack of real ambition and financial backing at boardroom level.
And when Yeung took charge things got even worse to the awful situation the club is in today.
We have had decent gates in the past but not consistently enough to be seen as a big club. Most clubs have potential to grow but how much ? Fans of all clubs need to be realistic I believe we should be a premiership regular but we would struggle to be more than that. We have never competed with the elite. There are a number of clubs in the midlands with better histories bigger support and bigger and better stadiums than us we lack the prestige of other clubs and that makes it difficult to attract a mega rich sugar daddy but who knows we might get lucky !
Just a few things:
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20140308/18649626
According to that, the hearing to (formally) confiscate ~HK$400M of monies is now due to proceed next month. However, currently that sum of money does not affect BIHL in any way.
Do you all know the “owners” are quite prepared to close down the part of Bih called Birmingham City. They can’t sell the club for 40 million and have no problem with shutting us down it wasn’t there money to start with!