Ahsan Ali Syed, the man with a Midas touch who rode into Blackburn as their saviour until several financial irregularities exposed by the BBC forced him out of contention is back in the news.
The mug happy Indian businessman is now the focus of increasing media scrutiny over a global scam involving millions of dollars. In short, his company, Western Gulf Advisory (WGA) allegedly took fees from his clients to secure loans that never materialized. It is estimated that this “Nigerian scam” cost Australian investors $100 million.
When Blackburn was eventually taken over by Venky’s, Mr Syed turned his focus on the Liga and subsequently bought out financially strapped Racing Santander a few months ago. More recently, he promised to bail out Terry Serepsios, the owner of the Wellington Phoenix in the A-league from impending bankruptcy by buying out a 50% stake but so far the indications are that he too has been duped.
WGA now faces the possibility of a string of lawsuits to recover the money. Which of course, brings into question the future of Racing Santander. Their owner is known to bolt when things get hot under the collar.
Blackburn are lucky they counted their chickens. At least their owners are not tainted like the Ahsan Ali Syed character. Now if Venky’s could give up some of their laugh out loud pie in the sky schemes.
Wikifraud documents Ahsan Ali Syed’s scam trail which starts in India in his native Hyderabad where he too is wanted.