Everton shareholders demand end to ‘farce’ of 777 takeover

Everton shareholders have urged the club’s owner, Farhad Moshiri, and the Premier League to end the “farce” of a proposed takeover by 777 Partners after the troubled company was accused of fraud worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The investment company 777, co-founded by Josh Wander and Steven Pasko, agreed a deal to buy Moshiri’s 94.1% stake in Everton eight months ago but has been unable to meet the Premier League’s criteria for allowing the takeover to proceed.

These include the repayment last month of a £158m loan to MSP Sports Capital and two local businessmen, Andy Bell and George Downing, with 777 having been granted a short-term extension to repay the loan.

The Miami-based company was also reportedly late last week with a £15m loan to Everton for working capital. It has loaned the financially troubled club more than £200m.

Further doubt was cast over 777’s ability to fund its acquisition of Everton and pass the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test at the weekend when the company was accused of fraud in a lawsuit filed at a district court in New York.

The lawsuit, the 17th in which 777 Partners and its affiliates have been named, was submitted by a pair of London-based asset management companies, Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP and Leadenhall Life Insurance Linked Investments Fund plc.

They accuse 777 of pledging more than $350m (£279m) in assets as collateral to Leadenhall despite knowing the assets had been pledged to another lender (“double-pledging”), were not owned by Wander’s entities or did not exist.

The lawsuit alleges that Wander and Pasko “are operating a giant shell game at best, and an outright Ponzi scheme at worst” and claims: “The only question now is whether Leadenhall will be able to