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After stating still in talks to buy Newcastle, now Bellagraph Nova Group co-founder quits in Police probe

3 years ago
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Only days after Evangeline Shen stated that the Bellagraph Nova Group were still in ongoing talks with Mike Ashley’s representatives to buy Newcastle United, one of the co-founders has quit.

The Mail report that Terence Loh made the move after police launched a probe into his activities.

In a statement the Bellagraph Nova Group said Terence Loh has now quit BNG to try and resolve the issues related to the police probe into Novena Global Healthcare, the statement also keen to stress that the Bellagraph Nova Group ‘is not linked to Novena Global Healthcare and its forged financial statements.’

Ever since claiming in July that they had bid to buy Newcastle United, the Bellagraph Nova Group have been involved in controversy after controversy, not having seemingly bargained for the media spotlight it would bring. Which is ironic, as the vast majority of Newcastle fans assume that the Bellagraph Nova Group were simply using Newcastle United to raise their profile! With not many (any?) believing they are serious bidders.

Terence Loh, Nelson Loh and Evangeline Shen were the three co-founders but sure enough, after checking their official website, they now list only two, although no mention on that Bellagraph Nova Group website as to why there are now two not three.

The mysterious Henry Mauriss and the Bellagraph Nova Group have been seen as a comedy sideshow by Newcastle fans, despite certain NUFC journalists embarrassing themselves by claiming one or the other are indeed serious bidders, despite offering no evidence whatsoever to back up their reporting.

The journalists claiming Henry Mauriss was / is a potential buyer, couldn’t even back up their claims with any credible evidence of how he could possibly finance a deal, with absolutely no signs in the public domain he had the kind of money needed.

To be fair to the media, it is the Bellagraph Nova Group who have continually pushed their own claims of being credible bidders for Newcastle United, which has attracted so many layers of ridicule as their claims of being this massive organisation with a $12billion turnover in 2019 and 23,000 employees, appeared to completely unravel.

However, in an exclusive interview with the BBC last week, one of the co-founders of the Bellagraph Nova Group, Evangeline Shen, had once again insisted that they ARE pushing ahead with their bid for Newcastle United Football Club.

Evangeline Shen telling the BBC:

“I can tell you our team just met Mike Ashley’s representative last week on the process in Paris again.

“Bidding for Newcastle is part of our strategy because it’s a well-known football club but still has room to improve, and we believe that improvement is good for the club as well as for our brand.

“We started real planning for the club such as whom to hire as trainer and whom to sign for players.

“We are always in contact and we are still very aggressive on trying to close the deal.”

For Newcastle fans the season has already been bizarre enough and it is still less than four weeks old, the claims by Bellagraph Nova Group bringing a mixture of amusement and annoyance. Newcastle supporters desperate for Mike Ashley to sell the club but very very difficult to see the Bellagraph Nova Group as serious bidders, no matter what they say. A belief that they are simply using the football club to give them a higher profile.

The BBC contacted Singapore-based corporate governance expert Mak Yuen Teen to ask about the seemingly outrageous claims that Bellagraph Nova Group have made about the size and strength of their organisation ($12billion turnover, 23,000 employees, photoshopping Barak Obama into photos, alongside other dubious press releases and media claims etc etc):

“I have seen listed companies continually misrepresent themselves including on the Singapore Exchange – announcing deals that are false, using fake degrees, but this is at a whole new level.

“It’s quite unbelievable that a $12bn company with 23,000 employees appear out of nowhere.

“Most likely they are claiming potential partners as part of their business.

When the BBC raised this with Evangeline Shen last week:

“The calculation [of $12billion and 23,000 employees etc] we have is a generic one because we can only base on what our partner firms and our subsidiaries tell us to consolidate.

“I understand the numbers may look large, but as the nature of online business, it’s very normal to have a lot of employees.”

On Friday 21 August a brilliant piece from Reuters looked into the credentials of the Bellagraph Nova Group.

BNG claiming to have that turnover of $12billion in 2019 and to having 23,000 employees, they also claimed that their main headquarters were now in Paris BUT Reuters could find no records of a company called Bellagraph Nova Group registered in France.

In addition, Reuters could not find any company by that name at the address it had been given as the BNG HQ (10 Place Vendome), one of their reporters visited the address and there is an office rental business operated by Regus in the building, with a receptionist saying BNG Group has used some office space there but its staff were not always present….

Bellagraph Nova Group do indeed have an office in Singapore and Reuters visited it, they reported that it was on the top floor of a four storey building, above a pet shop and a restaurant.

As it happens, Newcastle fan and long time contributor to The Mag, Jonathan Drape-Comyn, currently lives in Singapore. So after the piece by Reuters, Jonathan had a walk around to the Bellagraph Nova Group Singapore HQ and took the photo below of their offices (on the top floor)…

As I said, less than four weeks into it and the 2020/21 season promises to even stranger than ‘normal’ (whatever that is???) for Newcastle United fans.

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