racing santander owner on the run

''They are fraudsters,'' said Mr Johnson, referring to Western Gulf Advisory, which has offices in Bahrain and Switzerland.

''I can't let this go on and for other people to become victims,







Wanted in India ... Ahsan Ali Syed.





Others to have been stung include a former Queensland
treasurer, Keith De Lacy, a former bank executive, David Kenny, and a
raft of property developers, hoteliers and pastoralists.

The alleged mastermind is Indian-born Ahsan Ali Syed, who
has duped hundreds of victims into paying millions of dollars to obtain
loans that never eventuate.

With the millions he has taken from what now appears to
be a worldwide fraud, Mr Ali recently purchased the Spanish
first-division football team Racing Santander, which was playing Real
Madrid early this morning Australian time.

Mr Ali, 39, is wanted in India over an immigration racket
and also left London in a hurry in 2005 owing £7800 ($12,520) in rent
and a string of unpaid bills.

Up until last Friday, Mr Johnson, 50, was still hoping
that he would get back the $3.8 million he handed over. ''How stupid was
I to still hope?'' he said angrily.
The man who Wellington Phoenix owner Terry Serepisos has turned to
in hope to save the club and business empire has been accused of duping
hundreds of people in loan scams.

Serepisos had announced a $100
million loan package from Western Gulf Advisory that would allow him to
restructure his Century City empire, of which the Phoenix are a part,
and pay off all his debts.

But the loan has not yet arrived from
WGA, the company of new Spanish football club owner Ahsan Ali Syed.
Serepisos admitted last week that he has paid a fee to WGA, understood
to be more than $1.5 million.

Doubts about whether the loan may
ever arrive may have grown in the Serepisos camp after Ali Syed was
labelled as a "fraudster" in an Australian newspaper today.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a millionaire property developer claims Ali Syed runs a sophisticated international scam
A $NZ100 million loan ($A75 million) was loose change for a man of
Ali's resources. He had "access" to $8 billion, apparently. Enough to
rescue the club. Enough to shore up Serepisos's business interests and
placate the New Zealand taxman. Enough to save the blushes of the
A-League at a time when the national competition needs another bailout
likes it needs another column from me bagging it.

But according to reports last week in The Sydney Morning Herald, it's all a mirage. A con.

Ali
is an alleged fraudster who has left a trail of bad debts, solicited
fees from investors and welshed on paying loans. He is wanted by the
police in Hyderabad.

Serepisos, who coughed up $1.5 million as
part of the loan deal with Ali's investment company Western Gulf
Advisory, has to date not seen a cent of that $NZ100 million and Phoenix
is now back in limbo, though there are hopes that any one of a number
of businessmen will still come to the aid of the club, its players and
fans.

It's a depressing turn of events, especially just days
after North Queensland Fury was thrown on the pyre by the FFA. The Kiwi
adventure in the A-League surely will not survive another club's
extinction.

dena wrote:It means they're fucked.

dena wrote:It means they're fucked.

Santa Cruz wrote:Thank fuck he never took over rovers.