THE £500million proposed takeover of Everton 777 Partners is almost certainly dead in the water.
Or to be more specific at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea with the Bermuda Monetary Authority understood to have acted to place one of the American company’s subsidiaries, 777Re, under administration.
The BMA action means finances worth around £2.4billion can no longer be accessed to complete the deal.
There were already serious doubts over whether 777 founders Josh Wander and Steven Pasko would pass the Premier League’s fit and proper person test to become the Toffees’ new owners.
777 have been given the green light by the Financial Conduct Authority but exactly three months on since Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri agreed to sell, the Prem have yet to see audited accounts from the Miami-based group – who also have interests in a clutch of other clubs around the world.
The action by the BMA is not the only reported bombshell to have hit Moshiri, who on Monday saw his club hit by another Prem charge of breaching its profit and sustainability rules with Nottingham Forest also being held to account.
Investigative media platform Josimar also report that insurance company Haymarket is under investigation in Utah.
Haymarket, which is understood to have provided the majority of its financial assets to 777Re, is under investigation for a suspected breach of financial rules by the US state’s Insurance Department which has the power to revoke its licence or put it into receivership.
The moves from both financial authorities could effectively cut off any prospect of 777 moving into Goodison Park.
At the same time Moshiri, who has invested £750m into the club since first starting to take control in 2016, could be left with no buyer and in charge of a club that is appealing one ten–point Prem penalty and now faces another which could add at least four more.
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777 Partners are already understood to have poured £150m to keep Everton going and help fund the construction of the new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium which is expected to now cost far more than an initial £500m and which still needs around £200m to complete.
The controversial American outfit have yet more financial woes to deal with.
They are being pursued in the UK High Court over alleged unpaid aircraft leasing fees worth £22.4m.
Yet that civil action is not even the half of it.
Lawsuits against them total around £49m, including one worth £3.95m received in September last year for an unpaid security deposit relating to their New York office on Madison Avenue.
It is also claimed that two 777 subsidiaries, Sutton Park Capital and Speed Leasing Company, took out loans worth a total of £8.85m last summer from hard money lender Balanced Management, based in Utah.
The loans were agreed at an eye-watering interest rate of 52.5 per cent and guaranteed by 777 Partners.
Yet it is understood no payment from them has been received by Balanced, who are now seeking damages of the money they lent, plus interest plus legal fees and costs over breach of contract.
At a meeting with the government’s culture, media and sport select committee Prem chief executive Richard Masters confirmed any decision on 777 Partners’ takeover of Everton had been held up by unsatisfactory answers provided by the US fund.
Masters declared a final decision was still “weeks” away.
But in light of the new financial allegations against them, 777 and the Bermudian freeze on the £2.4bn assets within the 777 Re financial framework, it is only a matter of time until the controversial American company either walk away from Goodison – or are told to do so by the Premier League.
