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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Reuters has published a fun story today on the Trump family’s ever-expanding crypto empire. Here’s one section that caught our eye:
On June 26, an obscure entity called Aqua1 Foundation, which said it was based in the United Arab Emirates, announced it was buying $100 million of cryptocurrency tokens from World Liberty. It was the single largest known purchase of the so-called WLFI tokens at the time.
The Chinese businessman who met with Eric Trump in Dubai was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who has executive roles in multiple businesses and who is under investigation in Britain for money laundering, according to that nation’s National Crime Agency and a document filed in an immigration case at London’s Royal Courts of Justice.
A group called Aqua Labs Investment LLC told Reuters the $100mn purchase “was a commercial decision consistent with its focus on advancing regulated, scalable digital-asset ecosystems”. It added:
Mr Guren (“Bobby”) Zhou has never been convicted of any financial crime in any jurisdiction, and any implication to the contrary is defamatory and false.
FT Alphaville was naturally eager to find out more. Our tumble down this particular rabbit hole ended with an unexpected thud on some hardwood flooring.
Companies House shows a Mr Guren Zhou worked as a director at no less than 13 overlapping UK flooring companies — including Iwood Flooring, Glamorous Spirit, Stile Interiors, Underlay Republic and Flooring Republic — between Southampton, Preston and London from 2008 to 2019.
All of the UK entities listed have since been dissolved. Anbo Commercial, Anbo UK, Anbo Investments, Anbo Stile and Anbo International, where Zhou also moonlighted, were among the last to disappear.
Anbo’s website remains up and running, however. It describes how the group was founded by “well respected timber manufacturer” Zhou Senior in Shanghai in 1989. Exports to the US began in 1991. Bobby Zhou eventually took over and brought the company with him to the UK in around 2005.
In 2017, Anbo snapped up Leeds-based online retailer Posh Flooring, securing a foothold in the north of England’s laminate market. A news report at the time said the merger would simultaneously “support the expansion of Posh Flooring into Dubai and the UAE”.
Ambiguous market forces upended Anbo’s business model later the same year. From an administrator’s report in 2018:
In 2017 the interior design and construction industries changed such that management could no longer predict demand for the products . . .
Between January and November 2017 the Company [Anbo International] averaged sales of approximately £523k per month. In the latter period, December 2017 to March 2018, average sales were approximately £94k per month
According to the website, here are some things that subsequently happened at Anbo:
In this context, Zhou’s $100mn WLFI investment feels like a pretty natural development.
Further flooring:
— How an alleged ex-gang member is tied to royal carpet maker Victoria
