Horse Racing Ireland has to get a grip when it comes to troubled Phoenix outfit

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It has been a little over a year since the Racing Post ran a series of exposes about Phoenix Thoroughbreds culminating in a thunderous front page from our editor Tom Kerr in which he spelled out the ten questions the organisation had refused to answer.

These questions focused on where the money that backed the multi-million-pound spending of Phoenix's founder and chief executive Amer Abdulaziz Salman came from, particularly given he was named as allegedly being a key money launderer for the $4 billion cryptocurrency Ponzi scam OneCoin in a New York court in November 2019.

Abdulaziz's former right-hand man Tom Ludt also told the Racing Post his ex-boss had privately admitted money was invested in Phoenix by Mark Scott, a lawyer convicted of laundering $400 million for the OneCoin criminals.

Abdulaziz and Phoenix deny the claims and said they would "contest all allegations of wrongdoing".

However, the articles, and Phoenix's unwillingness to engage with the questions we raised, precipitated an unravelling of its operations, first of all with Abdulaziz declaring an immediate cessation of activity in Britain, before France Galop and then the BHA suspended the outfit from being able to make entries having failed to get satisfactory answers about the source of the group's funds themselves.

Amer Abdulaziz Salman: denies claimsCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Subsequently, Phoenix Thoroughbreds was blocked from having runners in Dubai and prize-money won by its horses in Australia was frozen. All in all, Phoenix's world became a lot smaller and the questions it refused to answer were no closer to being resolved.

While the whirlwind of action by racing regulators against Phoenix subsided, behind the scenes the difficulties have continued to pile up for Abdulaziz and his empire.

As reported by the Racing Post in February, Phoenix's UK auditor resigned having "become aware of money laundering allegations against [Abdulaziz]" so quit its role as "these allegations raise reputational issues for us".

Since then, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the financial regulator in the emirate, suspended Abdulaziz's regulated fund – renamed Think Capital from Phoenix Fund Investments (DIFC) Limited – while his unregulated fund – Phoenix Fund Management – has been placed into liquidation. Phoenix Fund Management, for its part, was in charge of the Dubai-registered Phoenix Thoroughbred Fund, so what the future for that part of the crumbling edifice is remains open to question.

A spokeswoman for the DFSA told The Front Runner: "The DFSA does not release information relating to any enquiries, investigations or administrative actions, unless and until there is a final decision."

Oh, and to complete the dealings, four of Abdulaziz's eight Phoenix Thoroughbred companies in Britain have been dissolved and the one remaining director, other than himself, in his housing business has resigned. A 'to let' sign has also appeared outside Phoenix's Newmarket office, although The Front Runner has not been able to speak with the estate agent about it.

I think you would agree that it has been a turbulent year in the world of Phoenix and Abdulaziz since the Racing Post published those articles.

There is, however, at least one outcrop of the empire still standing, because in Ireland nothing has happened at all.

Brian Kavanagh: outgoing HRI chief executiveCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

At the time of the action taken by France Galop in August and the BHA in September last year, I spoke with HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh, who outlined that discussions were taking place to establish the facts around Phoenix Thoroughbreds and that a conclusion would be reached in the matter after that.

In the subsequent months, I have repeatedly asked HRI for updates on the discussions, relaying – if it did not already know – what was going on elsewhere for Phoenix and Abdulaziz.

The most recent email reply came from a spokeswoman on Friday and, like all the others, it said: "As previously stated, correspondence is ongoing with Phoenix Thoroughbreds and HRI has no further comment to make at this time."

You have to wonder what conversations can still be going on over a year after other regulators started taking action, or whether conversations are actually going on at all. HRI's answer is not satisfactory, nor is the failure to provide any timescale for resolving the matter. Frankly, it looks like HRI would rather not engage with the process and hopes it all goes away.

Six horses have raced for Phoenix Thoroughbreds in Ireland this year, winning three races, and their trainers – Ado McGuinness and Fozzy Stack – were about as keen to speak about the situation as HRI.

"I have no comment on that," McGuinness said when asked about the owner he has five horses for. "I don't discuss my business with any reporter or anyone else."

Stack added: "I have no comment on that, it's not my business."

HRI simply cannot allow this situation to fester any longer. It needs to either clear Phoenix to keep having runners, and update the other racing authorities about what information it has gleaned to help them with its own investigations, or it has to end this.

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The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a three-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday