Post by Macmoish on Feb 24, 2011 7:46:09 GMT
Guardian/Digger - Matt Scott
Derby County powerbroker banned from managing investments
• Jeffrey Martinovich banned by US financial services regulator
• Accused is one of shareholders in Derby's parent company
What is it with Derby County? The club once chaired by Robert Maxwell, and whose former chief executive, finance director and de facto director of football were jailed in 2009 for fraud, now see one of their current co-owners in hot water. Jeffrey Martinovich is one of seven shareholders in General Sports Derby Partners LLC, the Championship club's ultimate parent company in the US. The former US Air Force officer made the investment on behalf of MICG Investment Management LLC, a hedge fund. But Martinovich has this month been banned for life from ever managing investments again after FINRA, a US financial-services regulator, made a series of allegations about his investment in Derby.
These were that he had inflated his performance-related commissions from investors after assigning "improperly and in bad faith" excessively high valuations to the Derby stake. This, FINRA alleged, meant he and his firm "engaged in acts, practices or courses of business which operated as a fraud or deceit upon purchasers of hedgefund units".
Martinovich accepted the ban from managing investments without either admitting or denying the allegations. Calls to the MICG offices returned an automated response that the line had been disconnected. Its website domain name now hosts a company selling ski accessories.
Derby stress that Martinovich has never been a director of the club or the US parent, but it is an embarrassing development for the club's owners. Andy Appleby, who fronts the GS Derby consortium, described it in 2008 as "a great group of folks; not just in terms of their financial capability but great, great people as well." There is no questioning the pedigree of other co-investors who include Jeff Mallet, a Yahoo! co-founder, and Tom Ricketts, the executive chairman of Incapital, an investment bank.
Still, disenchanted Rams fans have recently been chanting, "Yanks out". They are not likely to see Martinovich at Pride Park ever again.
Money talks for Fifa
The Fifa president Sepp Blatter is in Sudan for the Confederation of African Football congress, hailing last year's World Cup's success in swelling the world governing body's reserves to $1.2bn from $1.06bn. A little over three months before the presidential elections take place, Digger smells a whiff of electioneering. If you look closely at the Fifa accounts from 2009, that $140m influx is precisely what Fifa anticipated 12 months ago. The 2009 annual report states: "The result for the four-year period [between the South Africa and Brazil World Cups] will be $200m and accordingly, taking account of depreciation, there will be a moderate increase in equity, as planned, of $140m by the end of 2014."
Let us spray – officially
Along with goal-line technology, one of the less-documented items on the agenda during the meeting of the International Football Association Board at Celtic Manor next week is for referees to be permitted to carry "vanishing spray". It is a means of preventing encroachment at free-kicks, with the official able to spray the turf to ensure a wall stays at 10 yards. At the last IFAB meeting in 2010 the Argentinian federation's president, Julio Grondona, mentioned that it is a practice referees have frequently used in the South American leagues. Fifa has brought it to the IFAB table for a more in-depth discussion.
Home from Home Park
Less than 48 hours after Plymouth Argyle were hit with a 10-point penalty their vice-chairman and executive director, Paul Stapleton, has reportedly taken a 10-day holiday in Dubai. When Digger called the firm of accountants where he works and asking to speak to Stapleton, the response was that he is away on business, returning a week on Friday. "It's just meetings away from the office."
Bates due in parliament
Rumours are circulating that the culture, media and sport select-committee inquiry will call Ken Bates to one of its sessions. Remarkably it is said that the Leeds United chairman – not owner, just chairman – will turn up to talk. Rarely has Digger anticipated a meeting in Westminster's dreary backrooms with such excitement.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/24/derby-county-shareholder-banned-investing
Derby County powerbroker banned from managing investments
• Jeffrey Martinovich banned by US financial services regulator
• Accused is one of shareholders in Derby's parent company
What is it with Derby County? The club once chaired by Robert Maxwell, and whose former chief executive, finance director and de facto director of football were jailed in 2009 for fraud, now see one of their current co-owners in hot water. Jeffrey Martinovich is one of seven shareholders in General Sports Derby Partners LLC, the Championship club's ultimate parent company in the US. The former US Air Force officer made the investment on behalf of MICG Investment Management LLC, a hedge fund. But Martinovich has this month been banned for life from ever managing investments again after FINRA, a US financial-services regulator, made a series of allegations about his investment in Derby.
These were that he had inflated his performance-related commissions from investors after assigning "improperly and in bad faith" excessively high valuations to the Derby stake. This, FINRA alleged, meant he and his firm "engaged in acts, practices or courses of business which operated as a fraud or deceit upon purchasers of hedgefund units".
Martinovich accepted the ban from managing investments without either admitting or denying the allegations. Calls to the MICG offices returned an automated response that the line had been disconnected. Its website domain name now hosts a company selling ski accessories.
Derby stress that Martinovich has never been a director of the club or the US parent, but it is an embarrassing development for the club's owners. Andy Appleby, who fronts the GS Derby consortium, described it in 2008 as "a great group of folks; not just in terms of their financial capability but great, great people as well." There is no questioning the pedigree of other co-investors who include Jeff Mallet, a Yahoo! co-founder, and Tom Ricketts, the executive chairman of Incapital, an investment bank.
Still, disenchanted Rams fans have recently been chanting, "Yanks out". They are not likely to see Martinovich at Pride Park ever again.
Money talks for Fifa
The Fifa president Sepp Blatter is in Sudan for the Confederation of African Football congress, hailing last year's World Cup's success in swelling the world governing body's reserves to $1.2bn from $1.06bn. A little over three months before the presidential elections take place, Digger smells a whiff of electioneering. If you look closely at the Fifa accounts from 2009, that $140m influx is precisely what Fifa anticipated 12 months ago. The 2009 annual report states: "The result for the four-year period [between the South Africa and Brazil World Cups] will be $200m and accordingly, taking account of depreciation, there will be a moderate increase in equity, as planned, of $140m by the end of 2014."
Let us spray – officially
Along with goal-line technology, one of the less-documented items on the agenda during the meeting of the International Football Association Board at Celtic Manor next week is for referees to be permitted to carry "vanishing spray". It is a means of preventing encroachment at free-kicks, with the official able to spray the turf to ensure a wall stays at 10 yards. At the last IFAB meeting in 2010 the Argentinian federation's president, Julio Grondona, mentioned that it is a practice referees have frequently used in the South American leagues. Fifa has brought it to the IFAB table for a more in-depth discussion.
Home from Home Park
Less than 48 hours after Plymouth Argyle were hit with a 10-point penalty their vice-chairman and executive director, Paul Stapleton, has reportedly taken a 10-day holiday in Dubai. When Digger called the firm of accountants where he works and asking to speak to Stapleton, the response was that he is away on business, returning a week on Friday. "It's just meetings away from the office."
Bates due in parliament
Rumours are circulating that the culture, media and sport select-committee inquiry will call Ken Bates to one of its sessions. Remarkably it is said that the Leeds United chairman – not owner, just chairman – will turn up to talk. Rarely has Digger anticipated a meeting in Westminster's dreary backrooms with such excitement.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/24/derby-county-shareholder-banned-investing
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