It looks like Taynoon Nimer has finally shown his true colours. The Standard today reports that he has been hawking the club for a quick sale for several million pounds. They report two interested buyers although one may already have dropped out. We have to hope that no-one is stupid enough to give Nimer more than the £1 he reportedly paid to gain control of the football club.
It would appear to bring to an end any remaining credibility that the 'fake Sheikh' may have had and reveals his most recent outpourings and promises of unending support for the club to be completely bogus. Yet another shark in the tank whose initial anger at Matt Southall for taking personal advantage of Charlton's bank account begins to look like jealously because Southall got there first.
The urgency of the sale must also be linked with the imminent court hearing being brought by the former Directors, Derek Chappell, Bob Whitehand and David Sumners who are challenging their right to first call on their debts which may invalidate the takeover by Nimer's East Street Investments. The easy out for Nimer would be to settle the debts but at up to £7m he clearly looks unable or unwilling to stay in the game. In that case the idea of him funding a £50m takeover is fantasy-land. Long-suffering Charlton fans must now hope and pray that the ex-Directors get their day in court and an injunction which might avoid any further theft of club monies and mark the start of the exit of ESI conmen.
In the circumstances, Nimer's connections with the controversial Claudiu Florica looks to be pretty transparent. A court pronouncement today in Romania makes Florica liable to repay over £10m he took from the government for Microsoft Licences which he marked up illegally. We can only hope Florica hasn't been able to do any further damage to the Charlton P&L this week since his hasty appointment as a Director, replacing the dodgy Matt Southall.
Mr Southall continues to plead his innocence and yesterday spent a couple of fevered hours responding to fans on Twitter. Having initially told us that his largesse with club money was only as bad as Nimer's, he now seems to think revealing that Nimer never had the funds in the first place and that there was somehow a plan to relocate the club and develop the Valley, somehow makes him look better. A few hours later he must have realised he had said too much and angered too many people. In a naive attempt at covering his tracks, he tried to tell us all that his Twitter account had been hacked by showing us a screenshot of a password change (not a link to reset the password from Twitter). We might have laughed it off as more incompetence, only it's the second time he has tried this. We have also had the unhelpful input previously of his Wife on Twitter, who just dug a bigger hole for him before deleting her account and we have also had an ill-informed 'mate' of his attempting to help sell his hopeless case and antagonising fans in the process.
The growing list of accusations of misuse of Charlton funds for his personal gain continues to grow. He has yet to respond to the accusation that his Wife was a Director of a business called 17 Media that invoiced the club for £80,000 which Southall authorised. He did tell us yesterday that the design bill for a home in Cheshire was not for his personal home as that work was done months ago!
In the background, having already established that Southall was guilty of theft in his earlier career from Woolworths, Charlton fans' digging is revealing more and more suspect business dealings from his other failed business ventures. the recurring theme also seems to include very unhappy business partners who all claim he ripped them off. You would hope that the wrongdoing at Charlton eventually catches up with him in court that he is exposed on a wider stage but whatever happens, Matt Southall has succeeded in making himself a hate figure for tens of thousands of Charlton supporters. At least Taynoon Nimer can disappear back to the anonymity of the Middle east....
It would appear to bring to an end any remaining credibility that the 'fake Sheikh' may have had and reveals his most recent outpourings and promises of unending support for the club to be completely bogus. Yet another shark in the tank whose initial anger at Matt Southall for taking personal advantage of Charlton's bank account begins to look like jealously because Southall got there first.
The urgency of the sale must also be linked with the imminent court hearing being brought by the former Directors, Derek Chappell, Bob Whitehand and David Sumners who are challenging their right to first call on their debts which may invalidate the takeover by Nimer's East Street Investments. The easy out for Nimer would be to settle the debts but at up to £7m he clearly looks unable or unwilling to stay in the game. In that case the idea of him funding a £50m takeover is fantasy-land. Long-suffering Charlton fans must now hope and pray that the ex-Directors get their day in court and an injunction which might avoid any further theft of club monies and mark the start of the exit of ESI conmen.
In the circumstances, Nimer's connections with the controversial Claudiu Florica looks to be pretty transparent. A court pronouncement today in Romania makes Florica liable to repay over £10m he took from the government for Microsoft Licences which he marked up illegally. We can only hope Florica hasn't been able to do any further damage to the Charlton P&L this week since his hasty appointment as a Director, replacing the dodgy Matt Southall.
Mr Southall continues to plead his innocence and yesterday spent a couple of fevered hours responding to fans on Twitter. Having initially told us that his largesse with club money was only as bad as Nimer's, he now seems to think revealing that Nimer never had the funds in the first place and that there was somehow a plan to relocate the club and develop the Valley, somehow makes him look better. A few hours later he must have realised he had said too much and angered too many people. In a naive attempt at covering his tracks, he tried to tell us all that his Twitter account had been hacked by showing us a screenshot of a password change (not a link to reset the password from Twitter). We might have laughed it off as more incompetence, only it's the second time he has tried this. We have also had the unhelpful input previously of his Wife on Twitter, who just dug a bigger hole for him before deleting her account and we have also had an ill-informed 'mate' of his attempting to help sell his hopeless case and antagonising fans in the process.
The growing list of accusations of misuse of Charlton funds for his personal gain continues to grow. He has yet to respond to the accusation that his Wife was a Director of a business called 17 Media that invoiced the club for £80,000 which Southall authorised. He did tell us yesterday that the design bill for a home in Cheshire was not for his personal home as that work was done months ago!
In the background, having already established that Southall was guilty of theft in his earlier career from Woolworths, Charlton fans' digging is revealing more and more suspect business dealings from his other failed business ventures. the recurring theme also seems to include very unhappy business partners who all claim he ripped them off. You would hope that the wrongdoing at Charlton eventually catches up with him in court that he is exposed on a wider stage but whatever happens, Matt Southall has succeeded in making himself a hate figure for tens of thousands of Charlton supporters. At least Taynoon Nimer can disappear back to the anonymity of the Middle east....
Portsmouth fans bought their club. We can do the same if there is the collective will.
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