Kieran Maguire: Everton ‘money trail is opaque’ as tax havens links revealed
The money trail between Everton and private lender Rights and Media Funding Limited is “opaque” and unconventional.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the investigation into the Toffees’ finances published by The Guardian last Sunday (13 November).
The report found that Everton have borrowed £150million from Rights and Media Funding Limited, a Cheshire-based firm that has itself taken out loans from lenders in well known tax havens.
That sum represents over half of the company’s total loan book.
Rights and Media Funding Limited is also marked out by its lack of transparency, with no official employees on the payroll, official website or publicly available phone number.
Everton claimed that the firm is registered with Financial Conduct Authority despite this not being the case.
Maguire admitted that he was baffled as to why the Merseysiders would get into bed with such a company.
“It is highly unusual,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“Further digging into Rights and Media Funding shows that it appears to operate from an address that looks like it is just rented offices in Cheshire.
“It also has links to the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands in terms of where it obtains its funding from.
“So, the money trail is, I think it’s fair to say, very opaque.
“You wonder why Everton have chosen to go down this route instead of using a more conventional lender when you consider the sums involved.“
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