FEATURE | Habib Beye departure & 777 Partners in crisis: what lies ahead for Red Star FC?

Promotion sealed. Championship secured. Paris suburban side Red Star FC will be playing Ligue 2 football next season for the first time in six years, but last week’s major fraud claim against the club’s owners 777 Partners has cast a perilous shadow of doubt over the future of France’s fourth-oldest club. Red Star’s manager, former Newcastle & Aston Villa defender Habib Beye will now officially leave the club, with RMC Sport citing concerns about the Saint-Ouen club’s sporting project heading into next season.

Perhaps it was perfect timing: the evening when Red Star supporter’s mobilised with fake bank notes depicting co-founder Josh Wander, it was reported by Bloomberg and the New York Times that London-based firm Leadenhall Capital Partners have brought a major fraud claim against 777 Partners.

The Miami-based investment firm allegedly borrowed $350m from Leadenhall by pledging assets that it either didn’t own, or didn’t exist. Bloomberg reports that co-founder of 777, Josh Wander, double-pledged assets backing loans to the firm, and admitted to breaches in agreements – according to the document filed in New York’s federal court, seen by Get French Football News.

“To induce Leadenhall to fund their operation, Wander, along with his group of alter ego entities, ‘pledged’ over $350 million in assets as collateral to Leadenhall, knowing all along that the assets either did not exist, were not actually owned by Wander’s entities,” reads the claim brought to New York’s federal court.

The accusation in the court claim document are nothing short of astonishing: 777 Partners are accused of running a “giant shell-game at best, and an outright Ponzi scheme at worst” where the Miami-based investment firm are allegedly taking money