Behind every great fortune is a forgotten crime.
And, behind every small fortune are a whole array of smaller forgotten criminal indiscretions.
But crimes they remain.
Anthony Grant Bloom is the new chairperson of Brighton And Hove Albion FC.
Bloom demanded the role in return for his financial commitment to the continuation of the Falmer Stadium Project (FSP).
Bloom effectively ousted Dick Knight, the man who in Bloom's own words "saved the club from almost certain extinction at a time when no one else was willing to come forward" in a poker powerplay.
Bloom, apparently, has the best interests of the club at heart.
A brilliant mathematician.
An internet gambling entrepreneur.
A property magnate.
A League One Roman Abramovich.
A former professional poker player.
An industry mogul.
A professional gambler.
Anthony Grant Bloom claims to be all these things and more.
Ah! The psycho-psychology of the silver spoon.
Anthony Grant Bloom likes a big gamble and his £80 million interest-free loan to the south-coast club is certainly that.
As his eminence himself decreed to the gathered masses (sic) on Tuesday: "The credit crisis hit as we were going to the banks. We just got unlucky, so I've had to make a bigger commitment than I would have envisaged."
How philanthropic can one get?
Now a scenario analyst of even moderate talent was able to demonstrate that the bottom was about to fall out of free market capitalism a decade ago. But to be actively involved in a commercial infrastructural project on the cusps of the Depression is non-strategic, to put it politely.
In fact, setting up a property development company on any level is just a tad myopic in a Depression.
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Banks pull on projects at times of market failure.
The banks know something that our gambling genius is unable to grasp - the Big Picture.
But the idiocy of the venture is only one reason why Brighton fans should be concerned as to this takeover of their club by #################, via little Anthony.
Below we reproduce abridged versions of some earlier posts on the business practices of our heroic and fearless post-Mensa hyperbrain.
"Anthony Grant Bloom was the founder of Premierbet and he used to act as an ######## ############## for the underground Asian betting markets for numerous European clients.
Bloom was my second broker. No computerised accounts were kept by Bloom for private trading activities and transactions, everything was scribbled on paper and kept away from prying and taxing eyes.
Premierbet became financially compromised once they were confronted by the larger European and Asian firms, and was eventually sold for a couple of used condoms and a fiver to Interactive Gaming Holdings plc (IGH), who proceeded to do a runner with all of their clients monies.
Somewhere in this financial hotchpotch, Bloom was able to set aside enough money to establish a property empire, a private box at Chelsea FC and numerous other business operations occupying #################################################"
"Leisure punters should be aware that leading London-based bookmaker Premierbet is no longer in business and, although visitors to their website are being told that the site is "unavailable for essential maintenance work", the truth is that the company is not available for the essential payment of its debt obligations to clients.
Premierbet's parent company is IGH who are listed on the AIM in London. The company stock was suspended on August 17th and yet the bookmaker continued accepting bets over last weekend in the full knowledge that any trades enacted and any monies deposited were to disappear into the black hole of IGH's illiquid bank accounts. IGH were seeking interim funding from General Capital Venture Finance Limited but the venture people pulled the plug on August 15th and, despite company claims, there is no other saviour waiting in the wings.
Premierbet were previously in financial uproar in 2005 when IGH bought it for a nominal fee after the bookmaker had been mismanaged for years by self-styled industry mogul, Tony Bloom. From day one, there was no coordinated decision on whether the new operation was going to trade at the cutting edge of the gambling sector by offering accounts to winning professional traders or whether the concern was merely going to cream slices of profit off the leisure betting punter. By gyrating between these two options, Premierbet ended up offering inappropriate levels of service to both pros and amateurs. Furthermore, the company was heavily dependent on accepting bets illegally from American clients and, when the Bush administration started arresting British executives for such behaviour, Premierbet's profits and shareprice plummeted. ############################################
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Now lets make this clear, the system is so tilted in favour of bookmaking operations that only incompetence of the highest degree may explain an inability to retain market presence and Premierbet were astounding in their degree of unprofessionalism. This culture dated back to Bloom's megalomaniacal style when in charge of the company and, as all buyout merchants understand, a company culture is the most difficult aspect to adjust after takeover (Bloom remained as a consultant).
In a competitive capitalist system, companies obviously must suffer the consequences of a lack of financial rigour but it is only the gambling sector and the illegal black and grey market sectors that provide no comeback for customers who are financially compromised by bankruptcy. There will be no assessment of creditors losses or needs and the directors of this shoddy operation will be able to walk away prior to reinventing themselves in some other form to be able to fleece the uninformed all over again. This is something that Britain's new Gambling Act ostentatiously fails to address - gambling winnings and banked money are not recoverable under law. The upshot of this tawdry state of affairs is that the sector will continue to attract the most abusive type of business charlatan."
There are numerous other people who we could quote on ###########################
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For example, how about the despair of a former Premierbet punter on the SportsBook Review site: "I can't understand how they are allowed to go on trading. My account is still open, and I have £1500 credit still showing. Can you advise me on anything I can do? They are ignoring my emails, and phone calls are directed to a London number which is constantly on answer machine."
And Brighton fans remain unconvinced if the blog responses are anything to go by at the Brighton Argus website.
One wisely selecting to be "a little wary of Bloom in any case", while another fears correctly that "I am not sure that I like the sound of one person having such a vast controlling interest in the club", and yet another wonders "how much is being loaned in unsecured loans?".
So apart from a satisfaction of his rampant narcissism and the development of another business template in which to unravel his antisocial short-termism, what else does the chairpersonship offer to our own little Abramovich?
Well 90% ownership of the club once the ground is completed, for starters...
Additionally, a close contact of Bloom informs me that our hero would not have "saved" the club if they had been relegated this year (they survived by three points).
That doesn't sound too solid a commitment to me.
There are some aspects of Bloom's current business activities that we are unable to print in this place ##########################################################
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Bloom's gamble will only pay off if i) Brighton reach the Premier League, and ii) the Depression proves to be a myth.
There are ways in which the former agenda may be facilitated avoiding mainstream sporting competitiveness, but there is no way to avoid the impacts of the Depression.
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Although certain hyperowners and managers have familial links with the bookmaking fraternity, although leading agents play the markets on events under their control, although shirt sponsorship deals continue to provide exposure for Asian and European betting operations, although some players and referees are crooked, the Bloom takeover of Brighton is the first time that the fruits of gambling have been directly exposed at the pinnacle of an English club.
We will be analysing the markets on Brighton's matches in the future very closely indeed.
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Many moons ago in a telephone conversation with Bloom, I stated that "money isn't everything."
There was a palpable silence thing going on at the other end of the line.
Plus ça change...
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