Ignore the first line ... I couldn't edit it out from the copy and paste
From the comments section in that article (and ou think we had it bad)
What happended to the £80m, worth of players sold towards the end of Gaydamak's tenure - that would have paid off most debts, but the money has disappeared.
The feeling in Portsmouth is that al-Faraj never actually existed, hence his nickname al-Mirage. The only proof that he exists is a grainy photo on the internet of an Arabic guy, who could quite frankly be anyone. And he passed the Fit & Proper Person Test. As for that fantasist al-Fahim, either he was duped into buying the club as a front for shady investors (eg former Thai PM) who than ran away when people started asking questions, or he really was a penniless chancer.
What the article above does not mention in the long-running business feud between Gaydamak Snr and Chainrai. Chainrai was owed £17m by Gaydamak the Elder and that's exactly the sum he 'lent' to al-Mirage. The loan was defaulted and Chainrai seized the freehold to the club as security. He immediately became a 'secured' creditor, as opposed to the unsecured creditor Gaydamak Jnr, who was still 'owed' money by the club, thus usurping Sacha. In effect, Chainrai got his £17m with a fictitious defaulted loan to a non-existent person to get the money owed to him (allegedly). Portsmouth FC was merely a square on a Monopoly board.
Then the club went into administration. Chainrai promised to pay for it...he didn't. He promised that small creditors and charities owed money would be paid in full...they have not received a penny (the shameful theft from charities is perhaps one of the lowest points in the entire history of the City of Portsmouth and deserves an article on its own). The administrator Andrew Andronikou (who also deserves a dedicated article) then announced that the club could come out of administration with a CVA and unveiled the new owner of Pompey as......Balram Chainrai! You could not make this up. So basically Chainrai keeps his debenture with a toxic £17m bounty for anyone wishing to buy him (the land is worth at most £3m) and has got rid of 80% of debts at a stroke.
Chainrai then sells to the CSI group who cannot afford to buy the club, so are paying interest to Chainrai for his £17m debenture. The main backer Antonov is arrested for alleged £250m fraud in Lithuania and is fighting extradition. CSI go into administration and who comes back? Yes - Andronikou. And apparently Pompey have a debt to CSI for £10m (leveraged buy outs will be the death of football). And who is Andronikou looking out for...yes, it's Chainrai. Chainrai even tried to 'persuade' the high court judge with a £500k sweetener if Andronikou was appointed administrator again. Luckily a coalition of the HMRC, Penny Mordaunt MP, Portsmouth City Council, other creditors and an anti-Andronikou movement by fans had Andronikou removed by the high court and Trevor Birch installed instead. Andronikou had refused to meet any potential owners (apart from a nutter called Joseph Cala who dreams of building underwater casinos and starting a worldwide chain of Pompey clubs) and even demanded proof of £100m funds from the Supporters Trust to even meet.
The appointment of Birch didn't stop UHY Hacker Young (Andronikou's handlers) from taking £2m out of Pompey's frozen accounts on their way out for 'future services' (£300k has still not been returned). Trevor Birch has unearthed several skeletons, is challenging Chainrai's debenture which is crippling the club and has now unearthed a potentially illegal deal to give all parachute payments to Gaydamak set up by Andronikou. You can see why Chainrai and Andronikou were so desperate for Andronikou to be appointed administrator again - the festering can of worms is being gradually uncovered on a daily basis.
But time is running out to challenge these deeds in the courts.
Outrageous state of affairs here. A £17m secured debt on land worth only £3m, a 'dodgy' Administrator, missing funds etc. Even if they do last to the end of the season the only way they can survive is to reform and walk away from Fratton Park. No-one in their right mind would take on that level of debt with no tangible assets to back it up.
