JEFFREY EPSTEIN, NEWCASTLE UNITED'S OWNERSHIP, AND ANDREW MOUNTBATTEN-WINDSOR

Written by Andrew Page

On 30th January, the US Department of Justice released 3.5 million files related to the disgraced financier and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, exposing his relationships with wealthy and powerful individuals from all over the world.

These individuals may have included Todd Boehly, a minority shareholder in Chelsea FC, who has acted as the face of the club’s ownership. On 31st January, The Athletic’s Adam Crafton wrote:

“Jeffrey Epstein set up two business meetings with Todd Boehly, the chairman of Premier League team Chelsea and part-owner of baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers, in 2011 — almost three years after the financier had been imprisoned in a Florida jail for sex offenses — according to newly disclosed emails.”

When The Athletic tried to contact Boehly, one of his representatives told the outlet that Boehly declined to comment. The Mail, The Times, The Telegraph and other newspapers all carried the story in the hours after it was broken by Crafton.

While Boehly featured in the sports section of British newspapers, the front pages were dominated by the continuing troubles of former Royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The Mail’s main headline read: ‘Andrew sent photographs of his daughters Eugenie and Beatrice to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein at Christmas as the princesses are dragged into the latest scandal to hit their disgraced parents.’

Beatrice is a close friend of Jamie Reuben, who sits on the Newcastle United board of directors as a representative of Reuben Brothers Sports and Media, the group that have held a minority stake in the club since the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) took the majority share in October 2021. Her sister Eugiene was at St James’ Park for the first game after the takeover’s completion, and Beatrice was at Wembley watching the team at the Carabao Cup Final in 2023. When the pair were adults aged 19 and 21, they had lunch with Epstein in Miami just days after his release from prison following his conviction for prostituting minors. They were also called upon by him to entertain his contacts and give tours of Buckingham Palace.

It’s been argued that it’s unfair to blame the sisters for their association with Epstein, and it’s only the actions of their parents that deserves scrutiny. Likewise, it wouldn’t be fair to associate Jamie Reuben with matters involving his father, David, one of the brothers who actually controls the Reuben Brothers investment firm that owns part of Newcastle United.

David Reuben

The emails released by the Department of Justice suggest that attempts may have been made to arrange a meeting for David Reuben with Epstein after the latter’s 2008 conviction for sex offences.

In an email dated 21st March 2010, with the title “David Reuben”, the publicist Peggy Siegal appears to write to Epstein aiming to arrange a meeting on his notorious island:

“I am sitting next to him. He lives in London and Cannes. Has a yacht called Siren that is 242 feet. He is going to Antigua tomorrow. He has done business in Russia for many years – he was the first western investor in Russia… he is into many fab scientific investment … you need to meet him. How far is your island from Antigua. He is a major nice guy. You would like him.. how does he meet you?”

The same day Epstein writes to Peter Mandelson:

“David Reuben, wants to come see me today,, do you know him”

“A Reuben brother?” responds Mandelson. There’s nothing further recorded under Mandelson’s name, but Siegal sends a lengthy profile of him, during which she writes that Reuben has complained to her “that he knows no one in America” and adds that he “knows Len Blavatnik”, the oligarch sanctioned by Ukrainian President Zelensky. She also mentions Reuben’s family history and his support for Israel.

Epstein writes back to Siegal inviting Reuben to his island: 

“bring him over tomorrow for tea”.

But a few hours later Epstein appears to have a change of heart:

“Im sorry Peggy, for the moment i am without help at the house. It makes this impossible. Thanks for your consideration and understanding”

A few minutes after that someone who’s name has been redacted also writes to Epstein that morning with information on Reuben, seemingly to follow up an earlier conversation:

“Correction. Reuben bros have very murky past in ex Sov Union with Michael Chernoy. Semi sanitised now. Huge assets.”

It seems that a meeting didn’t take place, and there is no evidence to suggest that Reuben met with Epstein. But Siegal continues to talk up Reuben to Epstein, describing him as her “new best friend”, and saying that “he seems like a more stable new friend” for Epstein than the billionaire entrepreneur Michael Saylor.

Later that year, on 21st December 2010, a redacted sender from the Peggy Siegal Company emails a list of names to Epstein which are recorded under the heading “St. Barth’s Christmas 2010”, presumably referring to the Caribbean Island Saint-Barthélemy. Reuben is on the list, as is Ghislaine Maxwell, Harvey Weinstein, and Roman Abramovich. There is no other evidence that Reuben or Epstein actually attended any event that took place at the island.

The following year Peggy Siegal was going to the Cannes film festival, and she wanted Epstein to be there too. She again floated the possibility of a meeting with Reuben on his yacht. On 2nd May 2011, she wrote to Epstein:

“Opening night is Wednesday, May IIth. Can you arrive Tuesday night or Wednesday moming...stay at duCap...and go to Africa after. Debbie and David Reuben (brother of Simon) both from London...Syrian Jews who cornered the Russian market on aluminum...and have a 243 foot gorgeous boat...we can go on will be around. Do you know him? Very very rich and nice hamasha guy.”

It seems unlikely that Epstein took up Siegal’s invitation this time either, because after the festival she sends him a 3,571 word account of her time at Cannes that doesn’t mention Epstein. However, in Siegal’s Cannes diary Reuben is name checked once again:

“Friday, May 20th: I have invited Debra and David Reuben (normal people, not in the business) to the premiere of Sean Penn's "This Must be the Place." ….I take the Reubens to the after-party at Cherie Cheri Beach where Courtney Love explains to us Sean's character is based on a friend of Bono's. They also meet co-stars David Byrne and Judd Hirsch, who plays the Nazi hunter. It's a bit overwhelming for non-pros, so we bolt to the Croisette for steak frites.”

In an earlier email on 17th May 2011, Siegal writes:

“Got Debbie and David Reuben (from London and he is a billionaire from the aluminum market in Russia) to give me a bed in his home above the Carlton that King Leopold built...for the last weekend. Bryan wanted me out of sea view hotel room to save $6,000!”

In the same email to Epstein we can see the value that Siegal places in her relationship with Epstein, attributing her access to the rich and famous to him:

“Once again, you have allowed me to operate in the stratosphere...the access to major filmmakers and studio executives is unbelievable. The actors now yell out my name to say "Hi" and chat about their work.”

There is no evidence in the emails that Reuben ever met with Epstein. But Reuben’s apparent friendship with Siegal could be cause for concern in itself. On 18th December 2009 she emailed Epstein on her way to Nairobi saying:

“Can bring a little baby back for you....or two. Boys or girls? So Madonna.”

Epstein had been released from jail just 5 months earlier, after serving 13 out of 18 months of a sentence handed down for child sex offences. He was still under house arrest.

PIF

While Epstein might have been lukewarm on meeting one of the men who controls a minority share in Newcastle, he took a keen interest in Newcastle’s majority shareholders, PIF, and its Chairman, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS).

In 2015 MbS became deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, shortly after becoming the Chairman of PIF. Over the following months he became defence minister, as well as taking control of the state oil company Aramco. In January 2016, news broke that MbS was planning to sell part of Aramco, in what was expected to be the biggest stock offering in history.

Over the following months, bankers from across Europe and the US flew to meet with MbS, as did Larry Summers, the former US Treasury Secretary and friend of Epstein.

By Summer 2016, Epstein was corresponding via email with two advisors in Saudi Arabia:  Aziza Alahmadi and Raafat al Sabbagh. Later that year an email clarifies that al Sabbagh uses the moniker ‘His Excellency’, a title granted by the king that is usually reserved for ministers and leaders of government departments. In June, Epstein exchanged messages with al Sabbagh in an unsuccessful attempt to meet MbS during his visit to the US.

Epstein remained undeterred and by August 2016, he was emailing Alahmadi with a draft email seemingly intended for MbS, saying:

“feel free to critique. Tell me what you think needs work”.

He also copied in Norwegian diplomat Terje Rod Larsen, perhaps imagining that adding a former politician from the home of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund would add credibility.

He describes the letter’s recipients as ‘my new friends’, and advises on Aramco and the PIF, which are both currently overseen by Newcastle United’s Chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is officially answerable to no one except the Crown Prince.

First Epstein uses a medical analogy to warn of the perceived danger of taking Aramco public:

Let me begin by making a medical analogy. In my view what the kingdom needs is a financial health check -up, evaluation, diagnosis and personalized prescription. The prescription would address immediate care, midterm care and longer term equivalent to lifestyle changes. For Raafat and I that would mean more exercise, better diet and regular chest x rays, MRI.

You have asked me to make a prescription without seeing the patient. In medical terms that would be malpractice but as I have great respect and fondness for my new friends I will do my best, though it must be kept in the forefront of your mind that changes will be necessary according to the details and priorities of the Kingdom - pronounced by them, not by my interpretation.

Aramco: the Kingdom is being treated as one of the many wealthy but unsophisticated investors. Wall street and consultants look upon this opportunity as taking a cow to slaughter. The Kingdom in my understanding would like to diversify its economy and be money rich, to give it flexibility and security.  Taking the co[mpany] public is an idea of 25 years ago. It’s silly, shareholders are the last thing the kingdom needs. They are eventual weapons in any attack.

Then, referring to PIF, he advises against the use of a sovereign wealth fund, instead endorsing the creation of new currencies:

Acting as a large sovereign wealth fund, is antiquated. There is not a shortage of huge amounts of capital and merely competing with hundreds of the most sophisticated investors is a losing game. HOWEVER the country is a SOVEREIGN. This is the biggest asset, not its wealth alone. Sovereign nations are the only entities that can issue worldwide accepted currencies. Most nations that have considered this are asset poor, so the currency is virtually worthless. SA presents a unique opportunity. What will the money be used for? Why have the same money for military equipment from another country as the money the local Jeddah resident uses to buy milk?

He reiterates some of his advice to Al Sabbagh, and by 10th September 2016, he is still writing to Alahmadi, and Rod Larsen. Appropriately enough, the impending anniversary of 9/11 seems to have prompted Epstein to advise on avoiding compensation payments, something Alahmadi agrees with:

Imagine the nightmare if the Aramco is public, and the govt of Saudi is a shareholder. A lawsuit claiming 9/11 damages for 50 billion dollars gets a judgement. Some crazy judge attaches the Saudi shares. to satisfy the judgment, making the shares worthless. . IT is OLD thinking. . but I can only say it a limited amount of times.

In October, Epstein writes to Al Sabbagh and Alahmadi again, having added some details to his idea of a new currency. He suggests extremely cynical ideas to market the currency to Muslims, disguising its true origins, and he also claims to have spoken to the founders of bitcoin, whose identity / identities are unknown to the world:

The two more radical ideas would be to form two new currencies, one called the sharia. Would be like a dollar but every dollar has printed on it ‘in god we trust’. the Middle East could have its own sharia, for internal use amongst muslims. In addition a digital currency like bitcoin could be used to form a new sharia compliant digital currency. Very exciting. l spoke to some of the founders of bitcoin who are very excited. I have not heard any dates from you.

His final sentence “I have not heard any dates from you” suggested that a meeting has been proposed. Epstein’s status as a convicted paedophile could have been an obstacle that prevented him leaving the country for a possible short-notice meeting with senior members of bin Salman’s court. But help was on hand, and on 1st November, Epstein received a flurry of messages from his assistant, one of which read:

Aziza suggests we go to the Saudi Arabia Consulate today with your passport and ask to speak with Nageete re your visa...she says to tell them when we arrive at gate that you Jeffrey Epstein, has an invitation from His Royal Highness: PRINCE Mohammed bin Salman and HE: Raafat al Sabbagh to visit their country and it is urgent we speak with Nageete about your visa as he left a voice mail saying he needed to speak with you about the visa. She says if there is any problem to call her on her cell and she [will talk] to them in Arabic...but she does not think there will be a problem.

Other messages included one of Epstein’s pilots, Dave Rodgers, who asked whether they’d be getting visas as well. Epstein’s personal assistant responded “I believe the king is in charge of this as well” before eventually relaying back to Rodgers that “Aziza says you can ask for one if you want. It can’t hurt.”

In a later email he sent in October 2017, Epstein writes that he met with MbS on 7th November 2016. Al Sabbagh seems to have been his point of contact for the trip, and they exchanged messages commenting on Trump’s first election victory, which took place while Epstein was probably in Riyadh. A photo of the pair together was probably taken - the following year, just after MbS effectively deposed his cousin to become Crown Prince on 21st June 2017, Robert Lawrence Kuhn writes to Epstein, saying

“your photo with MBS just got more valuable....”

An undated photo of the pair together has been uncovered. 

By 10th November 2016, Epstein was setting out his terms in an email to Alhamadi that he asks to be passed to the more senior al Sabaagh. Epstein suggests that he should become “the major contributor” to the financial structuring of Vision 2030:

My suggestion is to become the Financial Confidant to the Prince / Court / KS.A whatever entity suits you. I would welcome the opportunity to be a, if not the, major contributor to the financial structuring of the vision. I am neither political or military or spooky. I am happy to represent KSA interests. Period. I know how Wall Street will try to play and I am happy and privileged to act as his financial bodyguard. I would need to review all financial components MYSELF. ministers, consultants etc . The vision is in definite need of a financial architect. Otherwise instead of a beautiful palace it will look like a Bedouin village. It will take a few months to make myself aware of the needs and current conditions. I would request a 30 minute skype or meeting every two weeks with the Prince.

Raafat I have no intention of having to be someplace at a set time. I no longer work for anyone who believes they can require me to be someplace of their choosing. I cherish my freedom and my friends. It is my ideas that are valuable, not the location of my body. :)

I know it is strange, but I do not want any money at all for the first year. zero. If agreed my firm could be reimbursed only for direct expenses, travel etc. I of course would agree to never take commission fees, compensation in any form from any third party or participant. I want the understanding between you, your boss and I to be pure. My guidance will make a great deal of money for many people. At the end of the first year, the prince can decide whether to pay any amount to my firm that he sees fit. No negotiation - he chooses the amount.

 I will need to see the org chart for the PIF, a detailed summary of the financial operations, central bank, royal purse (the queen had the keeper of the privy purse), the legal structures for the university that Khalid spoke about, and a list of the best 6 people with an overall working knowledge of KSA finance.

A further email to Aziza follows on 16th November, and by this point it certainly seems that Epstein’s ideas have been passed to MbS, with Epstein writing that MBS had asked him to look over the details of his economic vision:

Some of the initial questions will seem simplistic. MBS asked that I see the details of the proposed economic development area, legal structure, residency permits etc. With regard to the ministers he wanted me to coordinate with, for a first very preliminary overview I would like to see for EACH org structure . We will be proposing new legal structures, so justice etc..

For the PIF and economic development council and central bank, the following positions: top org chart, top thirty people, and their five top goals. For each of those goals the five things they are doing to achieve each, and the five things that are the biggest problems. So for each there will be 50 responses. A total of 25 positive and 25 negative issues for each minister. Let's start there !!

An obvious point that occurs here is that showing a link between Epstein and MbS mightn’t be of particular significance. Epstein is gone, and MbS has overseen the killing and dismemberment of a journalist, a brutal intervention in Yemen, and a record number of executions, including young men who were accused of crimes committed when they were children. Activists are given draconian prison sentences for showing even the slightest hint of opposition. Yet MbS is still able to place himself at the centre of global affairs – he has been hosted by Donald Trump at the White House and has been invited to the UK by both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. Does it really make a difference if he met Epstein or not?

It’s worth remembering that, with considerable help from Western journalists, MbS has been able to cultivate an alternative image. He is portrayed as a workaholic, sitting up late into the night arguing with advisors about policy. We’re told he has an obsession with KPIs, and he is constantly driving his underlings to accelerate change in Saudi Arabia. 

Much is made of the fact that, unlike many Saudi royals, he went to university in his homeland rather than in the US or Europe. It suggests that he possesses a level of authenticity and loyalty to his country that may have been diluted in other members of the Royal Court.

All this can lead some observers to conclude that, whatever his considerable flaws, MbS might be the best available bet for Saudi Arabia’s future. In this context, his professed admiration for Machiavelli’s The Prince can be seen as an exclusively positive thing.

But the Epstein files reveal an entirely different portrayal of the Crown Prince and his advisors.

Notwithstanding the fact that foreign advisors and investors have been involved in KSA for years, is it Machiavellian to send someone with numerous links to Israeli intelligence details of your economic strategy, even as he is maintaining that “I am neither political or military or spooky.”?

If MbS is such a devoted and hardworking patriot, then an American paedophile’s proposal to to advise him by phoning in via Skype for 30 minutes once a fortnight would surely have led to an immediate dead end, but correspondence continued long after that.

No one seems entirely sure how Epstein made the journey from Maths teacher to Wall Street and then became a billionaire. Some have questioned his credentials or even outright accused him of being a fraud.

His emails to the Saudi court are desperately low on details and rely on simplistic analogies and metaphors and vague promises of success – hallmarks of a confidence trickster.

That MbS and members of his inner circle appear to have seriously indulged Epstein suggest that they are half-arsed, overly impressionable, and easily duped. Perhaps MbS and his advisors were playing an elaborate double bluff of some sort, but the same conclusions can be reached by looking at the disastrous results of the ludicrous project at NEOM, the stuttering investment in sports, and the now shelved plans for the Mukaab skyscraper, which would have been the world’s largest cube.

Maybe the only notable characteristics MbS and his advisors truly possesses are the Crown Prince’s relative youthfulness in comparison to his predecessors, and his capacity for cruelty.

More than a month after the 7th November meeting, it seems that Epstein received an early Christmas present indicating that he was still in MbS’s favour. An email from Epstein to Tom Pritzker sent on 15th December reads

“Can you believe MBS sent me a TENT.”

But over the course of the following year, MbS appears to have gone cold on Epstein, and he didn’t seem to become a key advisor to the kingdom. In July 2017 Epstein writes to Rafafat Al Sabbagh offering to make another visit, pleading

“I miss talking to you”.

And in October 2017 he drafted another letter intended for MbS, offering his services again. But there is nothing to suggest a meeting followed this time, and it seems Epstein was no longer able to gain direct access to MbS.

In October 2018, when doubts are growing that the Aramco IPO listing will ever happen, New York Times journalist Landon Thomas writes to Epstein asking:

“Why didn’t MbS listen to you?”

Some online outlets have uncovered an email that they believe shows MbS and Epstein met in September 2018, but to me this looks to be a misreading of a comment from Epstein on a meeting that took place between MbS and the Emir of Kuwait during the Saudi-Qatar diplomatic crisis, on which Epstein was offering advice to some interested observers. 

Even if he was frozen out, Epstein still found a way to get close to MbS through a mutual acquaintance, whose name has been redacted from the files.

On 31st March 2018, MbS was in the middle of a 3-week tour of the US. In the early hours of the morning, Epstein received the following email from an unknown sender:

Omg! Ari taking me for dinner with MBS, future king of Saudi.... studying now. Everybody ask me why he gets money, because he is smart and doesn't disrespect people and understand the level of the person. I don't know why I write first time I met him remind me you by the way he treats people.

Epstein responds:

“He’s fun”

The person whose name has been redacted then sends a further email, where they may hint at a plan that could have previously been discussed with Epstein:

He is one of us! I have half of NY trying to impress me with UN, when M just have a plane from NY. This guy is supersmart and wouldn't destroy our friendship because my job is to make MBS fall in love with me but never get me. That's a plan. We are on the plane studying Karan. Then watch me next week in [redacted]. I will do casting for you in Moscow agencies. I know your type, we can discuss after I don't think I need [redacted] with me. Sorry since I am not at your age group anymore I can't send you many presents like it used to be, but I will make sure if I have one you got it. Thank you

It seems entirely possible that having been frozen out by MbS, Epstein was able to use one of the women under his influence to gain indirect access to the Crown Prince’s inner circle while he was visiting New York.

And one advisor in Saudi Arabia seems to have stayed in close contact, seemingly falling unambiguously under Epstein’s spell. In August 2018, Aziza Alhamadi writes to Epstein describing him as “the smartest, the kindest”.

In March 2017, she had arranged for Epstein to take delivery of pieces of cloth that had hung on the Kaaba at Mecca, the holiest site in Islam. In one email she explains the cloth’s significance, writing that one of the pieces “was touched by a minimum of 10 million Muslims of different denominations.”

Epstein, who reportedly held an interest in eugenics, reciprocated by sending her a DNA test kit to her 2 months later. Alhamadi then sent him a bouquet of flowers later that year.

His Excellency Rafaat al Sabbagh doesn’t appear to have kept communications open with Epstein in the same way, but the emails between them show that they had developed an informal relationship for at least a brief period of time. In September 2016, Al Sabbagh sent an email to Epstein containing nothing except a link to a news story:

“Russian Beauty Queen Flees to Dubai to Sell Her Virginity for $13,000”

Epstein replies saying: “finally you send me something worthwhile. This is a Russian bond offering”

Observing Al Sababagh’s comfort in interacting with a paedophile in this way serves as a reminder of the moral turpitude of some individuals who now hold influence at Newcastle United.

Overly credulous, easily duped, and utterly depraved – some of the defining traits of Newcastle United’s majority owners are on full display in the Epstein files. 

Amanda Staveley

Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners took a 10% stake in Newcastle United when the Saudi PIF became the club’s majority owners in October 2021, but she only held that stake until July 2024. She was, however, very far from a peripheral figure. She was the person who led the takeover of the club, first putting the idea to PIF governor Yasir al-Rumayyan during a meeting on MbS’s yacht.

After the takeover’s completion she had a seat on the club’s board of directors, and she has been described as the ‘public face’ of the takeover, engaging with the public and media far more than the other board members. It was reported that she and her husband were effectively “Newcastle’s asset managers…overseeing day to day matters”.

There is no mention of her in the Epstein files, and there is nothing to suggest that she ever met Jeffrey Epstein.

However, she has had a very close relationship with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, which began after she met him in Cambridge in the early 2000s.

In October 2003 it was reported that Staveley had been dating the man who was second in line to the throne for more than a year, meaning their relationship would have started within months of the dates when Virginia Giuffre alleged she was abused by Andrew.  Giuffre stated that she was introduced to the then Prince by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, who Mountbatten-Windsor remained in personal contact with until at least 2011.

The pair were reported to have grown so close that Staveley was introduced to Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie. Staveley is said by some sources to have turned down a marriage proposal in 2003. Like Mountbatten-Windsor’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, she remained close to the former royal after their relationship ended, and when her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi proposed to her in 2011, she told reporters that she contacted Mountbatten-Windsor to let him know, saying:

“He [Andrew] is really happy for me… we’re mates, so of course I wanted him to know.”

The Mail reported that she was spotted in the Royal Box with him at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as recently as December 2016, more than eighteen months after court documents were made public alleging that the former prince had sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was a minor.

Oddly, the media never seem to have questioned Staveley about her deep connections with the disgraced former prince, whose downfall continues to be one of Britain’s biggest new stories of the 2020s so far.

Like the Reuben brothers, she is a committed supporter of the Conservatives – in October 2023 it was reported that she had donated more than £84,000 to the party.

In August 2020, when the takeover looked to have stalled, Newcastle City Council’s chief executive stated that members of the consortium Staveley was spearheading had “made a clear long-term commitment to the city to help drive growth and regeneration” – a promise which induced the council to publicly support the deal.

At the time of writing little to no investment in the city has been made by PIF. In Winter 2022 the council made a misguided request for the Saudi PIF to fund free school meals for children in Newcastle, and Staveley rebuffed the proposal with an answer that was so unserious it was insulting.

The source and extent of Staveley’s wealth is something of a mystery – but she has brokered deals for Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour to take control of Manchester City and to inject funds into Barclays Bank in 2008, and she was the frontwoman for the PIF’s takeover of Newcastle United, helping bring the deeply oppressive and misogynist Saudi state to the North East. She has been described as having an extensive network of similarly high-level contacts, particularly in the Middle East. But this has not been enough to help her avoid financial difficulties herself.

In March 2024, Staveley unsuccessfully applied to the High Court for a bankruptcy petition she had been issued with to be thrown out. The judge in the case gave us some insight into her character, saying that her evidence “ventures into the realm of fantasy and is completely implausible” that there was a “real lack of reality in her claim”, and that she relied on “bare assertions” which were “inherently implausible”. He added that her claims were “unsustainable” and had a “complete lack of credibility”. On 11th September 2024, Staveley’s company was liquidated after she failed to reach a settlement with her creditor, who successfully pursued a winding up petition instead.

This wasn’t her first brush with bankruptcy - she has also previously been subject to an Individual Voluntary Arrangement following a failed internet venture in the early 2000s.

Given all of the above, you would have thought that when Newcastle City Council’s Labour leader Karen Kilgour decided to put on an event marking International Women’s Day, Staveley would be unlikely to receive an invite. But when the event took place in March 2025, several months after Staveley had left the club, she appeared to be the star attraction, receiving a standing ovation from the audience of 500.

*******

Someone as disreputable as Staveley being allowed to tarnish an event like this is an indicator of the lack of serious scrutiny that has been applied to Newcastle United’s Saudi led ownership in the years since the takeover.

During that time, we have grown used to the local press self-censoring itself when confronted with uncomfortable issues raised by the club’s ownership. This was most notable in January 2024 when news broke that Newcastle United Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan was being sued in a Canadian Court for allegedly “having carried out the instructions” of MBS, with “the malicious intent” of “harming, silencing and ultimately destroying” the family of the country’s former intelligence chief. Although it was widely reported in national and international media, North East journalists ignored the story.

The Reubens own several landmark buildings in Newcastle, in addition to controlling a minority share in the football club, so they are unlikely to be seriously questioned by the North East press either.

But it is strange to see Chelsea FC’s Todd Boehly facing questions from national sports media due to his links to Epstein, while, at the time of writing, absolutely nothing has been written by the national press on the Newcastle United ownership’s links to the scandals involving the American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his former friend Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The press must ensure that the ownership at Newcastle United is held to account.

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