777 Partners have been accused of fraud amid their Everton takeover bid.
The Miami-based group are persisting with the proposed buy-in at Goodison Park despite the Premier League refusing to ratify them for eight months now.
But a filing in a New York district court earlier this week has cast fresh doubts over their ability to be successors to Farhad Moshiri as the Blues’ owners.
Two London-based asset management companies claim that 777 used $350 million (£279M) of assets they either did not own or ever existed as collateral.
The filing by Leadenhall Capital Partners and Leadenhall Life Insurance Linked Investments Fund made direct reference to the Everton takeover.
“Everton is the latest shiny object of Wander’s fraudulent scheme” and goes on to say that [Josh] Wander and co-founder Steve Pasko are “operating a giant shell game at best, and an outright Ponzi scheme at worst”.
The document added: “To induce Leadenhall to fund their operation, Wander, along with his group of alter ego entities, ‘pledged’ over $350million in assets as collateral to Leadenhall, knowing all along that the assets either did not exist, were not actually owned by Wander’s entities, or had already been pledged to another lender.”
777 representatives have declined to comment on the looming litigation case.
It marks another blow to the Americans’ ownership bid, just days after their Australian budget airline brand Bonza entered voluntary administration.
Travellers across the country were left stranded by the abrupt move, with the company’s fleet of planes reportedly seized by creditors within several hours.
777’s global multi-club portfolio is also facing growing pressure with fans of Paris-based Red Star demonstrating against their owners on Friday night.
Fake bank notes with Wander’s picture and the words ‘In Josh We Don’t Trust’ were distributed to supporters before a 2-1 home defeat to Versailles.