A group of investors led by Trafigura Group’s head of oil Ben Luckock has been revealed as a significant minority shareholder in Bolton Wanderers football club.
According to a Bloomberg report, Luckock and 25 other private entities hold between 25% and 35% through an entity called BMLL Limited.
“We’re willing to be very much in the background,” Luckock told Bloomberg. “I’ve got a huge amount of trust in my brother and zero interest in delving into any control aspects.”
Companies House data shows Ben Luckock’s brother Nicholas as the sole director of BMLL Limited.
Nicholas Luckock is a director at Football Ventures (Whites) Limited, which bought Bolton out of administration in 2019.
Bolton narrowly avoided administration in 2018 after reaching an agreement with creditor BluMarble Capital, only to enter administration one year after over a £1.2 million unpaid tax bill.
Though Bolton currently competes in the third tier of English football, the 150-year-old club competed in the Premier League until 2012, after which it suffered a string of relegations.
“Everyone’s in for the journey and is aware that it costs more to run a Championship club,” Ben Luckock told Bloomberg. “You need to look at what you are doing with recruiting and trade sensibly,” he said.
Trafigura is a French commodities group with a string of controversies to its name.
It was implicated by Amnesty International in a 2015 toxic waste dump in Ivory Coast, although no charges were ever brought against the firm.
Trafigura was also named in the Iraq Oil-for-Food Scandal when it was alleged that several companies, as well as individuals, had paid illegal surcharges and kickbacks to the Iraqi government to secure oil contracts.