Roman Assets: Pensand House & Marlborough Court, Hythe and 3 & 4 Dalby Square Margate

EXCLUSIVE

Updated 21st Sept 2020

During the Yeltsin Presidency (1991 – 1999) of the Russian Federation, privatization of the state led to a lot of people become very wealthy. This was the rise of the oligarchs. To move their new found wealth out of the country they needed people to set up the myriad of companies.

One such company who was willing to help the Oligarchs was the Valmet Group. The Group’s  president was Christopher Samuelson (pictured below left). The Chairman of the group was Christian Michel (pictured below right)

 

Chelsea Portfolio Limited (CPL) – purchased Pensand House & Marlborough Court, Hythe Kent on the 03/12/96. It also purchase 3 & 4 Dalby Square, Margate, Kent on the 08/07/96. Chelsea Portfolio Limited was owned by Frasertown Limited Gibraltar, who had two shareholders at the time of purchases and after, they were:

At the time of the purchase of Pensand House & Marlborough Court, Hythe, Kent, and 3 & 4 Dalby Square Margate Thanet, the two companies above were owned by Roman Abramovich, according to a Times report 7th Sept 1999. These companies therefore owned and controlled Frasertown Limited Gibraltar, who owned Chelsea Portfolio Limited in the UK.

As an aside before we move on, both properties received Housing Benefits from tenants and so went into Roman’s coffers directly or indirectly. It is known between 2014 and 2016 Chelsea Portfolio Limited received £357,000 in Housing Benefit Payments for the tenants of Pensand House & Marlborough Court from Folkestone & Hythe District Council. How much Housing Benefit they received for 3 & 4 Dalby Square Margate from Thanet District Council is not known.

Chelsea Portfolio Limited also paid for a planning application to Folkestone & Hythe District Council at least once. What other payments have been made to, or received from Chelsea Portfolio Ltd by Folkestone & Hythe District Council and Thanet District Council, is unknown for now.

The Times report goes onto say:

“Abramovich (pictured) was named in the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal. His name  emerged after speculation that Swiss investigators are looking into the role of Runicom as part of the widening investigation into the laundering of up to $15 billion of Russian money through American banks.

Runicom is owned by at least two offshore companies set up by the Valmet Group, a financial services concern partly owned by Menatep, a failed Russian bank that used the Bank of New York.

Christopher Samuelson, president of Valmet Group, yesterday refused to disclose the beneficial owners of Valmet Nominees and Finsbury Nominees.

“All I can tell you is that Valmet itself does not own anything in Runicom,” he said. “I couldn’t release any information at all without the client’s permission.”

The Times has confirmed that the man behind Runicom’s owners, Valmet Nominees and Finsbury Nominees, is Mr Abramovich. 

So now even more evidence emerges to support our justifiable and proportionate concerns relating to allegation of money laundering by others, at the time of purchase of Pensand House & Marlborough Court, Hythe (pictured) & 3 & 4 Dalby Square, Margate. 

Surely with Nationwide Building Society investigating these concerns about money laundering, any s21 eviction order to decant the families who still remain at Pensand House and Marlborough Court should be halted.

Folkestone & Hythe District Council have already sent 16 families to Durham (up to 10th Sept). They should should stop sending anyone to Durham, 330 miles away and immediately, as we believe they are flouting the homelessness guidance.

Instead the Council ought to launch an investigation of their own as they will have been involved in financial transactions, with Chelsea Portfolio prior and after the purchase of the property.

It cannot be right that when even more evidence emerges that any planning application by Folkestone & Hythe District Council Planning Committee today, would be right and proper. 

We call upon Sanjay Ashok SHARMA to co-operate fully in the investigation by Nationwide, as he became a director of Chelsea Portfolio Ltd on the 20th March 1996. He remains a director to date.

Before we move on, lets not forget the Panama Papers show between Feb and Sept 1996, Valmet Nominees Ltd was a shareholder in Seabrae Properties Limited, Southview Properties Limited and Hightail Properties Ltd all incorporated in the tax haven commonly known as the Bahamas. This demonstrates clear linkage between Abramovich and these companies, as he was the owner of Valmet Nominees Ltd at the time. And later in 2003 Valmet Nominees Ltd set up a Manhattan Real Estate LCC incorporated in Nevada, USA and on the same day incorporated Manhattan Real Estate Limted in the British Virgin Islands.

Also we suspect that Leiston Holdings is also a company owned by Abramovich in the British Virgin Islands; which has links to Chelsea Football Club and potentially doing deals to buy football player rights; which might not be all they seem.

On the 21st Sept 2020, Panorama announced Leiston Holding in the BVIs is owned by Roman Abramovich, as we suspected.

So with all this evidence and more, we call upon Cllr David Drury Monk, Leader of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, the Head of Paid Service Dr Susan Priest – Amandeep Khroud – Solicitor & Monitoring Officer for the Council and the Council’s Money Laundering Reporting Officer Tim Madden to defer the Pensand House & Marlborough Court planning application on tonight’s agenda. It would NOT be wise or prudent to proceed, not with this much evidence now publicly availably regarding concerns about money laundering.

   

We would urge you, our readers and tenants of Pensand House and Marlborough Court to email them

david,monk@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk

susan.priest@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk

amandeep.khroud@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk

tim.madden@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk

So with evidence from the Gibraltar equivalent of Companies House, Court Documents, the Book, All is Clouded by Desire and The Times article, there is more than sufficient evidence to justify our proportionate concerns regarding money laundering at the time of purchasing Pensand House & Marlborough Court, Hythe Kent and 3 & 4 Dalby Square Margate.

We emailed Sanjay Sharma, a director in Chelsea Portfolio Ltd since 1996, a set of questions, two weeks ago today, asking him about the identity of the owners, allegations of money laundering, embezzlement and fraud and other questions Well surprise, surprise A reply came there none, so far. 

Again we make it clear the Shepwayvox Team is NOT making any allegations, we are just raising the concerns raised by others.

The Shepwayvox Team

Dissent is NOT a Crime.

There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities included in this blogpost have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly unless found so by a court of law.