U.S. soccer investor fighting extradition from Spain, wanted on multiple allegations of fraud

New York Times

3 days ago

Prominent multi-club investor Paul Conway has been in a Barcelona prison for more than five weeks and is fighting extradition to Belgium, where he is wanted for questioning in relation to six allegations of fraud linked to the 2024 bankruptcy of KV Oostende.
The American has strongly denied any wrongdoing and his wife has described the experience as a 'nightmare', likening it to a scene from Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables.
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Conway, 55, is the co-owner of Pacific Media Group (PMG), a Hong Kong-based sports and entertainment firm that combined with other Chinese and U.S.-based investors to build a stable of European clubs that numbered seven at its peak.
He has either sold or lost control of three of those clubs now, though, with Oostende being his most acrimonious exit, as a local administrator seized control in early 2024 but could not prevent the Belgian side from collapsing that summer.
The club's demise, however, sparked an investigation by the Belgian federal police's Sports Fraud Team and, in March this year, an investigating judge at the District Court of West Flanders issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) for Conway.
It was done 'in absentia', which means the Florida-based Conway was not present.
As a result, Conway was blindsided when he was arrested on arrival in Spain on May 20 for a short non-football-related business trip. He was immediately taken into custody and had his first court hearing, via video link, with a judge in Madrid the following day.
His lawyers managed to block his immediate transfer to Belgium, but he has remained in prison while the legal arguments have continued, causing great concern to his family and friends.
Speaking to The Athletic, his wife, Louisa Conway, explained that the first she knew of it was when her husband's Spanish lawyer informed her. She had been expecting him to return to Florida on May 23 to take one of their daughters on a college-visiting tour.
'It was a shock and the beginning of a nightmare for our family,' she said. 'Paul has no criminal record, so we struggle to comprehend why the Belgian government issued the EAW.
'The best way to describe this nightmare is to say it's like waking up in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, where a person is thrown in jail for stealing bread. No facts, just emotional allegations.'
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This is a reference to the family's view that the Belgian authorities want a scapegoat for the death of a community asset that was much loved but had been in well-publicised financial difficulties before Conway's group of investors arrived, then went bust after they were removed from power. While there is no disputing how unpopular Conway was by the end of his time at Oostende, he was initially greeted as a saviour.
The Belgian police and investigating judge have not responded to requests for comment. The EAW outlines the six crimes it believes Conway may have committed, with the central allegation relating to Oostende's 2021 purchase of striker Mikael Biron from French team AS Nancy, another of the clubs in the PMG portfolio.
Biron, now 27, cost a reported €5million (£4.25m), but was promptly loaned back to Nancy and then sold to Belgian team RWD Molenbeek a year later for €2.5m.
The initial transfer raised eyebrows and many Oostende fans thought it was done to boost Nancy's finances when they were struggling to obtain a licence to continue as a professional side in France. The EAW explains that the football fraud squad were alerted to the issue by a July 2022 article in Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.
The EAW also refers to other 'unusual costs' incurred by Oostende for Nancy's benefit, as well as a €1m (£850,000) payment made to a French law firm's client account that was later 'partially reimbursed' by some of Nancy's shareholders.
Conway's family, however, in strenuously denying his involvement in any possible fraud, point out that Conway never had sole control at either Oostende or Nancy and his personal shareholdings at the clubs amounted to 7.5 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively.
They also note that Oostende's local shareholders appear to be blaming PMG for the collapse of a proposed rescue by a group led by Mark Campbell, a British businessman who had previously failed with bids to buy Stirling Albion, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion in the UK. As previously reported by The Athletic, Campbell was declared bankrupt in 2010 and has been involved with dozens of dissolved businesses in England and Spain.
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Describing the Belgian authorities' action as 'mind-boggling' and 'an arbitrary abuse of power', Louisa Conway believes they are 'weaponising their judicial system to settle financial disputes related to a bankrupt soccer club'.
'(They) have the right to conduct an investigation into Oostende's bankruptcy, but, oddly, they have only issued one arrest warrant,' she said.
'The club had a board of directors, which my husband was a member of between 2000 and 2023, and it was managed by several locals. Why is the Belgian management team not under investigation (too)?
'Belgium's use of the EAW here is truly frightening, and they have incarcerated my husband on the musings of a blogger. If they want to investigate, that's their prerogative. But why not call him? Why issue this arrest warrant?
'I still cannot believe this mess is emanating from Belgium, the 'heart of Europe', a land of diplomacy and cooperation. The USA needs to pay close attention to how American business people could be wrongfully detained by these EAWs.'
While her anger at her husband's plight is understandable, there will be fans at the clubs Conway has invested in who will be thinking there is no smoke without fire, although Conway has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
PMG, which is co-owned by Hong Kong-based businesswoman Grace Hung, first teamed up with Chinese-American hotelier Chien Lee to buy a majority stake in OGC Nice in 2016. A year later, after looking at several other British clubs, it bought struggling Championship side Barnsley, with famous Oakland Athletics executive vice-president Billy 'Moneyball' Beane joining the investment group.
Barnsley were relegated that season, but Nice enjoyed some success and PMG and Lee's New City Capital were able to quadruple their initial investment when they sold the French club to Sir Jim Ratcliffe in 2019 for €100m (£85m).
But it is what they did with that money over the next three years that catapulted them to wider attention, as they bought stakes in Swiss side FC Thun, Oostende, Nancy, Danish team Esbjerg, Den Bosch in the Netherlands, Germany's Kaiserslautern, and GKS Tychy in Poland.
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In 2021, with Oostende flying high in the Belgian top tier and Barnsley reaching the Championship play-offs, it looked like the group's strategy of playing high-energy, hard-pressing football, with German coaches and young players, was working. The aim, Conway freely admitted, was to fund the group's activities by regularly selling its best young talent.
However, problems hit in 2022 when Barnsley, Esbjerg and Nancy were all relegated in varying states of financial difficulty. The ownership group, which had evolved as more clubs were added, also started to fracture.
Conway and Lee were pushed out at Barnsley in 2022 — and later fined by the EFL for failing to fully disclose who all of their partners were in 2017 — and lost control at Esbjerg in 2024, the same year they sold their Den Bosch shares to a Chinese group.
With Oostende declared bankrupt last summer, PMG now only holds tiny stakes in Barnsley and Nancy, and larger but not controlling stakes in Kaiserslautern, Thun and Tychy. These five clubs are on firmer footing, but there is little sign of them operating as a multi-club group anymore.
In the meantime, Conway is approaching his 40th day in custody, while lawyers in Belgium, Spain and the U.S. argue about his fate.