Peter Pannu, the long-term associate of the convicted money launderer Carson Yeung, who since Yeung’s 2009 takeover has been a senior executive at Birmingham City, has resigned from being a director of the club. The move, announced in a brief club statement, follows abusive and threatening comments Pannu apparently made on the Often Partisan website run by a supporter, Daniel Ivery, the author of a book on Yeung’s dramatic period in charge.
The club and Ivery were certain the posts were genuinely from Pannu, who has not replied to an email from the Guardian asking if they were indeed his. In the posts, he signalled a threat of legal action in Hong Kong over Ivery’s book, Haircuts and League Cups, which traces Birmingham’s turbulent times under Yeung, a former hairdresser, who fronted an £81m takeover in 2009 and was sentenced to six years in a Hong Kong prison for money laundering earlier this year.
Pannu suggested that Yeung, despite being barred from acting as a director of City due to his conviction, is nevertheless influencing discussions about a sale of the club. Yeung still owns a 28.57% stake and is the largest single shareholder of the club’s parent company, Birmingham International Holdings Limited, which is registered in the Cayman Islands and listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
A recent announcement stated that a further 16.49% has been bought by Wang Li, a Hong Kong-based shareholder about whom no further details have been disclosed. Pannu’s online posts to Often Partisan suggested the club will run out of money in January or February due to a £1.8m tax bill, which the club vehemently refuted. Pannu also dared Ivery to “have the balls come to HK one mote time [sic]”.
The Football League said it had asked the club for an explanation of Pannu’s posts, which were also reported to the Hong Kong stock exchange, after which trading in BIHL shares was suspended. The supporters trust, Blues Trust, has written to the league calling for an investigation into whether Yeung is acting as a shadow director, in breach of his ban.
The club’s statement said: “Peter Pannu has today resigned as director of Birmingham City PLC and Birmingham City Football Club. The resignations have been accepted with immediate effect.”
Pannu, who was paid nearly £1m for work relating to Birmingham City in 2012-13, remains the BIHL chief executive and managing director.
