Kiwi with a chequered past wants football club

Victor Cattermole plans to pump $400 million into the troubled Portsmouth Football Club. Photo / Doug Sherring

The Kiwi who says he wants to buy an English football club has a criminal record and a string of failed companies and once had to be evicted from a Catholic girls' boarding school.

Christchurch-born Victor Cattermole has also operated investment schemes that the New Zealand Securities Commission has warned investors away from, because it says they do not comply with the law.

Cattermole emerged in the British press as a self-described Hong Kong-based businessman and the potential saviour of troubled Portsmouth Football Club.

Portsmouth is bottom of the Premier League and was this week put into administration (similar to receivership) owing $70 million. It has already gone through four different owners this season.

Cattermole told the Herald on Sunday he planned to pump $400m into the club to get it back on its feet. But an investigation by this paper has found Cattermole had a troubled business history.

He has faced legal questions over a clapped-out Mercedes Benz and was convicted on criminal charges over another car as recently as 2005.

Three companies he is connected to have gone into liquidation and at least another 12 have been struck off the Companies Office register.

Cattermole has also been involved in cyber-squatting and had his company linked by the Securities Commission to a failed tax haven company whose founder was jailed for stealing about $1.5m.

Cattermole's business difficulties sit in contrast to a glittering online resume.

On the CV, he describes himself as "director/owner of seven international companies, author, coach and mentor to many CEOs and business owners".

Cattermole goes on to list his roles as director of Fidco Global Limited and CEO of Endeavor Plan Group Limited.

Cattermole's CV claims Fidco Global to hold assets worth $12 billion in 2008 and growing to $24b in 2009. Endeavour Plan is described as a barter-style scheme operating across 35 countries with eight million members by 2008.

On one site he is quoted as saying: "If the shallow end is going to be over your head, you may as well jump in the deep end and go for it."

However, when asked about the schemes, Cattermole offers a less glamorous perspective. He said he had no idea how much money Fidco Global currently managed.

Endeavour Plan had twice fallen foul of the Securities Commission, the government regulator of the finance industry and investment schemes. In 1997 it was banned from advertising in New Zealand.

The Commerce Commission also slammed the scheme for pyramid selling.

Then, in 2003, it fell foul of another warning after promoting its scheme on the internet, encouraging people to invest using their credit cards. The commission said the scheme was run by Cattermole from Wellington through a Hong Kong company, soliciting investments in a company operating from the British Virgin Islands.

That company was named by the commission as CSA Absolute Return Fund Limited, which collapsed in 2005 with almost $50m missing. Founder Charles Schmitt was sent to prison for almost seven years for stealing $1.5m.

Cattermole said the Endeavour Plan was linked to Schmitt's scheme but insisted it was only for a short period. "We had done a small amount of due diligence but, to be fair, not enough."

He said investors' funds were protected - because none had ever been invested.

Cattermole had previously found himself under question over his business activities - in 1995 he was ordered by the High Court to move out of Erskine College, a former Catholic girls' school in Wellington. He had signed a $1m contract to buy the place but never paid, even though he moved into the priest's flat on the grounds. It took the court order to get him out.

Two years later he was again in trouble when linked to cyber-squatting. Cattermole was fronting and advising a company which bought up domain names that matched well-known brands. The company then offered them to the companies that owned the trade names for huge sums.

In 2002, Companies Office records show Cattermole was in court trying to claim damages from a panelbeater for a 1978 Mercedes Benz worth $1500. The car was owned by a company of Cattermole's that had gone bust owing $11,000.

The liquidator's report stated that the case was tossed out because the damage wasn't caused by the panelbeater - and that Cattermole had no claim to the car anyway because it was bought with borrowed money.

It was another Mercedes that had Cattermole in court in 2005, this time a 1992 model worth $35,000. Cattermole was prosecuted by police after he signed the car over as security on money he borrowed.

He told the Herald on Sunday: "It was an unfortunate situation and I thought I acted prudently. The court system is a system brought in by a democracy to allow people to resolve differences with a mediator. That doesn't mean people don't go in believing they are right."

Companies Office documents show Cattermole, who had three other liquidations and at least a dozen companies struck off the Companies register, used a New Zealand address until 2007. Then, he changed his address to Hong Kong.

He was back in New Zealand last week, saying that his father was ill and he had come back to support the family.

Last week, Cattermole assured English journalists he had the money for Portsmouth.

Cattermole's history could raise questions under English Premiership rules that owners must be "a fit and proper person".

It lists a raft of rules and offences which are barriers to ownership.