THE Brunei-based Fortress Sports Fund intended to purchase a 29.9% stake in Everton by December 2004, with an option to acquire further shares to give it a controlling stake.
The proposal – which was backed by Bill Kenwright – went before Everton shareholders at the AGM in December.
It followed the public fall-out of Kenwright and then director Paul Gregg, and it was anticipated that Gregg's shares in addition to others would be sold to the fund.
Kenwright and Everton director Jon Woods were in favour of accepting the investment, but Gregg was sceptical and refused to endorse it.
On December 22, Samuelson said: “Cash transfers can take three or four days and I hope it is with Everton by Christmas.”
However the money had not materialised by January, and in February 2005, then chief executive Keith Wyness stated that the club had begun to look for other potential investors.
In April 2005, Samuelson stated that “the Fund is completed and registered” but Gregg publicly questioned the FSF. He said: “As a director I have not received any proof of funds – or that they even exist.”
He added that the club had been “led down the garden path,” and that “the whole exercise has embarrassed the club”.
Nevertheless, Samuelson insisted the funds were ready but could only be finalised by a shareholder extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM). An EGM was never called.
In November 2005, at the following AGM, Kenwright said that Samuelson “didn't, like many many other people, come up with the goods.”
