Synchronicity serendipity or coincidence? You decide (Part 2)!

Following on from Part 1 which I published yesterday (4 March 2019), it hadn’t escaped my notice that the OCCRP have published more details today. The following graphic is taken from their website and for which I am very grateful.

And, at the time I started writing this article, an argument is raging in parliament and beyond as to the propriety of opening up corporate registers to the population at large.

I wanted to see whether the mainly offshore entities named in this trove of leaked documents could be in any way linked to UK entity information which is freely available to us through Companies House and which I wouldn’t be able to bring to the public’s (slightly bemused) attention, any other way.

Well!!

Either you believe in a world full of coincidence or there is something very strange going on here.

Let’s start with the Roberta Transit LLP (of course).

It’s now dissolved and there is no trace on the Companies House website but good old OpenCorporates has much better historic data and, sure enough, there it is.

Registered in 2007, dissolved in 2009, the incorporation address was 39 Wetherby Mansions, Earls Court Square (home to dozens of Danske Bank Estonia LLPs) and the original designated members were Ireland & Overseas Acquisitions Ltd and Milltown Corporate Services Ltd. Who are also all over the Danske Bank scandal.

Is this starting to follow a pattern?

That’s the only obviously UK company, so let’s start looking at some of the others.

Next to Roberta Transit LLP you will see a company called Delco Networks S.A.

Diving in to OpenCorporates, I see there are two Scottish Limited Partnerships called Delco (along with one called Delcorp). Let’s have a closer look.

The first one is called Delco Corporation LP. It’s registered address is 44 Main Street, Douglas, Lanarkshire, home to more than 3,000 companies and an address associated with many past stories of money laundering. For example: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/locals-baffled-revelation-firm-based-8506997. The same address was also home to Delcorp LP and Delcorp Corporation LP. Even though all three have entirely different partners (both General and Limited) all six signatures on the three sets of incorporation documents are the same (Tiffany Nicole Brown, so not much room for coincidences there. And anyway, the signatures are identical).

The next one is called Delco Worldwide LP and this one is registered to 78 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh, home to another 2,500 or so companies. This one also associated with a bunch of dodgy actors. See: https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/trail-scottish-limited-partnerships-edinburgh/

It also has Matthew Stokes as a General Partner. Matthew was placed on the UN ineligibility list in November 2017 for fraud and collusion. At the same time, a Scottish Limited Partnership, of which he was the General Partner was also added to the list. It was called Trident Asia LP and was registered to 78 Montgomery Street.

After Delco comes Nixford – a very specific and unusual name (you’d think). But, lo and behold, up pops Nixford Services LLP, registered to Unit 5, Olympia Industrial Estate, Coburg Road, N22 (home to hundreds more companies, including for example Carlpool LLP which featured in the Azerbaijani Laundromat and has accounts signed by Ali Moulaye).

It’s designated members were (it was incorporated and struck off without ever filing anything) Altimex and Crestberg of Roseau Valley, Dominica, who performed the same service for Credojet Alliance LLP, recently in the news (https://news.err.ee/914421/former-interior-minister-linked-to-danske-related-shell-companies-network) also located at Coburg Road and also with accounts signed by Ali Moulaye.

Then there’s Kentway S.A. another unusual name but, sure enough, we get a match. Kentway Consulting LP is a Northern Irish Limited Partnership (they’re fairly new kids on the block) registered on 15 August 2017. The General and Limited partners were Bondwest AG and Enetrvox AG both of the Marshall Islands. They were also designated members to the very recently (26 February 2019) dissolved Goldhill Commerce LLP whose accounts in 2015, for example, were signed off by Ali Moulaye.

And then there’s Industrial Trade Corporation.

That throws up Industrial Trade Company LLP and Industrial Trade LP. I’m going to ignore Trade Capital Industrial LP, even though it has overseas partners and was registered by Remigijus Mikalauskas, who featured in this BBC story back in 2015 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34445201 in case I’m accused of manipulating the data too much. I’m even going to ignore the recently incorporated Kingstown Trade Industrial LLP which, bizarrely, has two Uzbeks as its designated members, nor yet Namtex Trade Industrial LP, registered to the same Bath Street address as Industrial Trade LP. I’m also going to ignore Tradecity Industrial LP registered to Mitchell Street , Edinburgh and which has the well known Voxpoint and Goldstein partners from Dominica in charge.

And it would be stretching my thesis to breaking point to include Tradecourt Industrial LLP of 175 Darkes Lane, Potters Bar which is a shame as it’s a Ireland & Oversas and Milltown LLP, with accounts signed by Ali Moulaye.

Industrial Trade Company LLP (back to the subject) was originally formed with designated members from Blake Building in Belize City and transferred to two new ones in Century Tower, Panama. It has a Russian PSC, is registered to a popular address in Woodberry Grove, North Finchley and has overdue accounts.

The SLP (Industrial Trade LP) is now registered at 272 Bath Street, Glasgow home to more than 4,000 companies, although it was originally registered at 45 Rosehaugh Road, Inverness, home to many more companies, one of which, for example (Hansa Investment LP)  was involved in the Moldovan Bank scandal.

International Media Overseas returns too many hits to say with any confidence that any of them are related so we’re going to pass on that one (although there was an International Overseas Services LP registered to 44 Main Street, Douglas with paperwork signed by Tiffany Nicole Brown, but I’m going to be good).

Sandalwood however throws up Sandalwood Management LP registered to Buchanan Street in Edinburgh, home to hundreds more companies. Two more partners based in Victoria House, Mahe, Seychelles.

If we return to the top of the graphic (above Roberta Transit LLP) there are a few more to talk about.

Vanterey (wait for it) does not have a UK doppelganger!! Although there was a Vanterey Union Ltd registered in Hong Kong in November 2007 but, because Hong Kong does not have a fully transparent registry, I can tell you no more.

Lorwick Holdings Ltd on the other hand, throws up Lorwick Technologies LLP. Now, at first glance it doesn’t seem so suspect as the latest address provided before they were struck off (Eton Avenue, London NW3) is not one I’m familiar with. But, a quick look at the filing history shows that the original registration address was 39 Wetherby Mansions, Earls Court Square and the original Designated Members were Ireland and Overseas and Milltown. And the accounts for 2010 were signed by Erik Vanagels.

Next comes Whitewood. There are two Scottish Limited Partnerships that have Whitewood in their name:

• Whitewood Management LP
• Whitewood Alliance LP

Taking each in turn, Whitewood Management LP was originally registered to the Buchanan Street address, has two partners, the General Partner is Winton Associates Ltd and the Limited Partner is Carberry Investments Ltd. Their address is also Victoria House, in Mahe, Seychelles) and they are associated with a number of SLPs involved in the Moldovan Bank scandal (e.g Harrogate Consulting LP).

Whitewood Alliance LP is registered to the Rosehaugh Road address, and has the same two partners as Hansa Investment LP mentioned above.

Reaton throws up Reaton Alliance Ltd (yes, a limited company) which is sadly no longer active as it was voluntarily struck off in 2017. IT had the lovely Abigail Koloong (a resident of Vanuatu – of course) as its director. She has history (https://www.stopfake.org/en/center-for-eurasian-strategic-intelligence-a-fraudulent-hawkish-think-tank/).

Now then Protectron. Surely not? Well nothing that arouses any particular suspicion. Although there was previously a Protectron Ltd located at Jupiter House, Calleva Park Reading, an address about which there has been much previous reporting (for example, a company at this address was named in a SAR obtained by the OCCRP when reporting on “The Proxy Platform “ – https://www.reportingproject.net/proxy/jdownloads/The%20Invisible%20Empire%20of%20the%20Diplomat/doc_midland_11.pdf) but as Protectron dissolved in 2010 I can tell you precious little more about it.

And Zarina escapes without a mention.

The other main image in the OCCRP report is this one:

 I wrote about Quantus yesterday and Delco appears above so let’s just take a quick look at Dino.

And sure enough we find Dino Experts LP (a SLP). It has the prolific Vectorex and Geotrans as partners (about whom I have written many times) and is located at another popular Scottish address, 145 Kilmarnock Road, Glasgow. They have also featured regularly in the press, for example in this article by the now famous Bellingcat team (https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2017/11/14/british-governments-attempts-fight-corruption-money-laundering-already-failing/).

I could probably go on but I’ve probably made the point and then some already.

THEY ARE ALL CONNECTED.

Although, just to be clear, there is no suggestion that any of the specific entities named in this article have been involved in any activity of a criminal or even suspicious nature. I just love spotting these connections.

😊