Behind the scenes of West Ham takeover bid

It was one of the sweetest transfers in the football world.

Two rising Argentine stars, plucked from Brazilian club Corinthians, and delivered to English West Ham for absolutely nothing, right as the transfer window was about to close. It was beyond the wildest dreams of any West Ham fan.

The way in which Tévez and Mascherano were funneled to West Ham had nothing to do with dreams. It was a deal rooted in the new reality of top-flight club football, one of multimillion pound property contracts and the exploitation of the image rights of players, of all-powerful agents and of Russian oligarchs.

It is also a new reality of impenetrable financial transactions and, in some instances, allegations of money laundering.

The Guardian discovered the company that previously owned the right to both players, and which has been linked to a takeover bid at West Ham, is being investigated after an initial inquiry raised concerns about money laundering.

Media Sport Investment (MSI), a subsidiary of a secretive investment firm registered in the British Virgin Islands, came under investigation after it took control of Corinthians in December 2004.

Sao Paulo state prosecutor's office knows the company well. It furnished a report after an investigation by officials from the organised crime taskforce and from the intelligence service, the Agencia Brasileira de Inteligencia, alleging that "sufficient indices [exist] to show that the partnership MSI-Corinthians is being used to practice the laundering of money."

Few know the individuals who provided the money that allowed MSI to lease Corinthians on a 10-year deal, and then buy in some of the continent's brightest prospects in the sport. The identities of all the backers in the bid to buy West Ham – for between GBP 80 million and GBP 100 million – have not been made public.

The prosecutor's report said that some of the money allegedly being laundered through Corinthians was "principally [that] of Boris Berezovsky."

Berezovsky, a mathematician-turned-entrepreneur, is one the few linked to the transfer deal and subsequent takeover bid.

The cast includes another so-called oligarch, who seized control of former state-owned assets at bargain prices during the chaotic days of Russia 's privatisation; an Israeli football agent with a global influence; and an Iranian-born businessman raised in Kent.

Berezovsky was the group's wealthiest and most powerful player until Vladimir Putin turned upon him shortly after his election as president in March 2000. Since then the businessman has lived in exile in the UK, dividing his time between his Mayfair penthouse and his Surrey estate.

Russian authorities have charged him with plotting a coup. Attempts to extradite him to stand trial have failed because he was granted political asylum amid a Scotland Yard investigation into claims that the SVR, one of the successors of the KGB, was plotting to murder him with a poison-filled fountain pen.

Berezovsky has always denied wrongdoing, saying that he acted within the legal framework of the time, and that all charges against him are politically motivated.

He recently has been given a UK passport under the name Platon Elenin, which he appears to have borrowed from the lead character in a film loosely based upon his life.

He cannot, however, return to his homeland, unless he would like to find a new home in Siberia.

Berezovsky's friend, Badri Patarkatsishvili, a former Communist Party official from Georgia, has been linked. The two men teamed up during the 1990s and bought under-priced Soviet-era aluminum and oil enterprises.

Patarkatsishvili, 50, also owns Georgia Dinamo Tbilisi. He makes the occasional business trip to London, but spends much of his time at his palace in the Georgian capital, where he is surrounded by security guards.

Like Berezovsky, Patarkatsishvili never travels to Russia, where he too faces arrest on fraud charges that he says are politically motivated.

There is Israeli agent Pini Zahavi, an influential figure in the English game. Zahavi has been behind some of the biggest transfers in English football, including Rio Ferdinand's multimillion pound transfers from West Ham to Leeds and then to Manchester United.

As his presence has grown, he has helped broker deals for whole clubs: he was heavily involved in Roman Abramovich's takeover of Chelsea, and helped another Russian, Alexander Gaydamak, buy into Portsmouth.

He says that he was involved in the transfer of Tévez and Mascherano to West Ham, but denies playing any part in the takeover bid.

About the only person who will admit to having a hand in it is Kia Joorabchian, 35, whose family fled from Iran to Kent after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

A man with both British and Canadian passports, and who lists two different dates of birth at Companies House, Joorabchian says he resigned as president of MSI a few weeks ago and now handles the contracts of Tévez and Mascherano personally.

He refuses to reveal who financed the company and its partnership with Corinthians, leading the Brazilian investigators to complain in their report that he was "trying, at all costs, to hide knowledge of the people and businesses involved in the transactions ... from the investigation."

He is coy about his backers for West Ham, naming one Israeli hotelier but declining to identify others.

Joorabchian denies that Berezovsky – or any other Russian investors – are backing the bid. Berezovsky says his only interest in football is as a spectator, and denies any involvement at any level.

Lawyers for MSI say Brazil's investigation has roots in political rivalries within Corinthians, and that Joorabchian has not been personally investigated.

Joorabchian and Berezovsky deny the money-laundering claims in Brazil. Berezovsky's spokesman said Brazilian police indicated they were no longer interested in him when he was released without charge after being detained and questioned at Sao Paulo airport this year.

Few in Russia have forgotten Joorabchian's role in the financial manoeuvres in which Berezovsky seized control of newspaper Kommersant.

In 1999, at the age of 28, Joorabchian bought 85 percent of the newspaper through a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. He gave assurances that he was not acting on behalf of others. Within months, the newspaper had passed into the hands of Berezovsky.

Joorabchian said that was his final deal with Berezovsky. The latter said Joorabchian was not acting as his frontman then, and has not done so since.

But Patarkatsishvili let slip to one journalist last year that, "We have invested in a wonderful football club in Brazil, Corinthians. We have invested in the Brazil team with Boris Berezovsky." This came after Berezovsky denied involvement in Brazil or MSI.

Patarkatsishvili is not the subject of any inquiry.

Berezovsky repeated his denials, insisting he and his friend were interested only in building a stadium in Sao Paulo. The Brazilian investigation is ongoing, however.

If Berezovsky is involved, it would be yet another foreign investor ready to hop into English football's ready cash, glamour and loose regulation. Abramovich and Gaydamak have been joined by Malcolm Glazer of the United States, who has taken on huge debts to buy Manchester United, and Randy Lerner, the US businessman who just bought Aston Villa.

Television supplies the cash. The Premier League, founded 14 years ago, has been an astonishing success, ushering in an era of unprecedented wealth at the top of the English game. Bankrolled by Rupert Murdoch's Sky network, the League has become a global TV phenomenon.

Earlier this year the League secured a new deal with Sky and rival satellite station Setanta that will deliver GBP 1.7 billion to clubs over three years, a 66 percent increase on the existing arrangement.

The total value once overseas rights and new technology deals have been secured is expected to reach GBP 2.5 billion. That makes even a middle-of-the-pack club such as West Ham hugely attractive to foreign investors.

It has also helped create favourable conditions for investors. With the wealth gap at the top growing, supporters know that only hard cash can bridge the gulf.

Another attraction for West Ham investors lies in the 2012 Olympics. The Games are expected to transform east London, and in six years there will be not only an Olympic Park, shopping centre and new housing, but a new 80,000-seat stadium, which the club is known to be interested in occupying.

Another reason for speculation over Berezovsky's role is his relationship with Abramovich, who was a partner in the biggest privatisation deal, which saw the creation of Sibneft, a massive oil company, 10 years ago.

After Putin turned on many of Russia's leading businessmen six years ago, he went first after Berezovsky. Since that point, Abramovich appears to have outmanoeuvred his former mentor at every turn.

Berezovsky was first forced into exile then pressured into selling many of his assets back to the state. Today, he is estimated to be down to his last GBP 800 million.

The Chelsea owner, on the other hand, remains on Putin's good side, is close to the president's likely successors and spends much of his time in Moscow. There is no cash reduction for him. And since buying his west London football club, he has woven his way into the cultural fabric of another nation in a way which brings adulation and, perhaps, security.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.