Christy Kinahan kisses ‘Dubai’ to ‘crown jewel’ in so-called ‘legitimate’ business empire
UAE authorities pull plug on crime family’s company
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have shut down the jewel in the crown of Christy Kinahan’s so-called ‘legitimate’ business empire.
Records seen by the Sunday World show Kinahan Snr’s ‘Christopher Vincent Commercial Brokerage’ had its license terminated as part of the same clampdown in which five companies owned by sons Daniel and Christopher jnr had theirs cancelled.
The records show that Kinahan Snr registered ‘Christopher Vincent Commercial Brokerage’ with the Department of Economy and Tourism in Dubai on October 30, 2020.
A commercial brokerage acts as an intermediary between parties purchasing and selling goods and providing services during the course of negotiations.
The company’s license to trade ran until October 30, 2022 – that permit is now designated as ‘finished’.
The termination of Kinahan’s trade license occurred six months after the US Government imposed sanctions on Kinahan Snr and his sons in April of 2022 and placed a €5 million bounty on their heads.
No address is listed for the now defunct ‘Christopher Vincent Commercial Brokerage’ on the UAE Economic Register – but it’s understood it operated from the same headquarters as several of the family’s other firms in Dubai.
Signage formerly posted in the Boulevard Plaza in Dubai showed Christy Kinahan Snr located another of his companies ‘Effective Business Solutions’ out of Suite 2101-2102 in the building.
No records exist for the company ‘Effective Business Solutions’ on the publicly available Economic Register.
Kinahan Snr gave pride of place to the brokerage business on his now defunct LinkedIn profile, which he ran under the name Christopher Vincent.
The Sunday World first reported on Kinahan Snr’s presence on LinkedIn and Twitter in April 2022, when we revealed how he had used the name Christopher Vincent to control a network of companies to drum up business in the UAE.
Screen grabs of the LinkedIn profile then obtained by this newspaper show how top centre on his home page, he gave himself the title ‘Christopher Vincent, Business Broker.’
He also named himself as Senior Consultant at CV (Christopher Vincent) Aviation Consultant Services.
No records exist for this company on the Economic Register.
Addressing his role as a broker on LinkedIn, Kinahan Snr wrote that he was: “providing collaborative solutions to my client’s business challenges with innovative ideas that are embraced by them”.
Kinahan claimed to be involved in brokering deals “across over 15 verticals, including, banking and financial services, healthcare, retail, consumer goods and insurance to deliver robust solutions in key areas of client growth.”
“Currently, working between Spain and the Middle East conducting feasibility studies, research and writing reports.
“Love the concept of crypto currency, crowd funding and alternative forms of financing.Important to “take some downtime regularly, remember “we’re here for a good time, we’re not here for a long time.”
Among the other companies headquartered at Kinahan’s base at Boulevard Plaza were MTK Sports Management LLC, Probellum MMA Sports LLC, and a finance company, Investech Partners Investments, run by Norwegian financier Thomas Stray.
Stray, a controversial figure in Swiss financing, formerly went by the name Thomas Øye.
Having started his career as an encyclopaedia salesman in his youth, Stray has stated that he worked for years for Coca-Cola before setting up as a broker in the Norse Securities brokerage house.
The venture ended with Stray entering bankruptcy – with a multi-million euro claim entered against him.
According to Stray, the claim was settled by buying back the debt.
The controversies surrounding Stray peaked when in 2005 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison – of which 12 months were suspended – for handling stolen goods.
Stray travelled to Dubai in the early 2000s, where he has started several companies in technology, crypto and finance.
Among them were financial firm Endemaj Funds and the investment and blockchain company Investech.
An investigation published by Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet last weekend revealed that among the party who accompanied Christy Kinahan to Zimbabwe in 2019 was convicted UK fraudster Quentin Reynolds – who, it’s alleged, on that trip handed out business cards identifying himself as ‘International Investments Officer’ with Investech.
The phone number on the card was the same number listed in Dubai for Christy Kinahan’s ‘Effective Business Solutions’ and Investech.
Reynolds was also previously identified as ‘Head of Global’ for MTK.
Queried by Dagbladet over Investech’s links to Reynolds and over a sponsorship agreement Investech entered into with MTK, a spokesperson for Stray denied an association with Reynolds and distanced him from the MTK marketing contract.
Erland Bakke – now an adviser to Stray’s new company Endemaj Funds – told Dagbladet: “We can confirm with certainty that Reynolds has never had any kind of agreement with Investech.
“He has never been on the company’s employee website nor has he been mentioned in any presentations to the company..As I understand it, Reynolds confirmed under oath in court that he was ‘Head of Global’ for MTK and never said he worked for Investech.”
Regarding Investech signage appearing at MTK fights, he said: “I have been in contact with the former marketing manager at Investech.
“It is confirmed there was an agreement where Investech paid for visibility at various events.This was an agreement that primarily secured tickets for Investech to major events with world-famous athletes.
“This agreement was regulated by the marketing budget of the company at the time and was a decision made by the marketing manager himself.”.
