As their proposed takeover of Everton enters a key week, new court filings show 777 Partners struggling to fund a 1 million dollar payment to a lender as recently as January.
By Paul Brown and Philippe Auclair
Josh Wander claims that the mounting number of lawsuits filed against 777 Partners are “business as usual” for a company of its size, which claims to manage over 10 billion dollars in assets.*
But filings made last week at the Supreme Court of the State of New York suggest that the Miami firm was struggling to fund a payment of just 1 million dollars as recently as three months ago.
This certainly seems odd at a time when multi-club owners 777 were – and still are – hoping to sign off on their biggest transaction yet in football, a long-delayed takeover of Everton which is expected to cost well over 300 million pounds to complete and which remains in doubt.
But in text message exchanges filed with the New York County Clerk involving Wander himself and his recently-departed Chief Financial Officer Damien Alfalla, the difficulties the Miami firm was having settling even minor debts over the past few months, appear to be laid bare. These messages were filed as exhibits by Change Lending LLC, a California-based investment firm, which is suing 777 for damages of 30 million dollars.
“I don’t have the liquidity”
In one message, sent to an employee of Change Lending on 7 January, Alfalla responds to an urgent request to pay 1 million dollars of money owed by the next day by admitting: “I don’t have the liquidity to pay that tomorrow.” In an earlier me...
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