777 Partners Founder Josh Wander Pleads Guilty to $500m Fraud
Josh Wander admitted inflating 777 Partners’ assets to borrow money and agreed to repay $500m. Here is what it means for the clubs his firm once controlled.
Ownership & M&A Josh Wander Admits the Fraud Behind 777 Partners' Football Empire
The man who tried to buy Everton has admitted to fraud. Josh Wander, co-founder of Miami investment firm 777 Partners, pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court on Thursday and agreed to repay $500 million to the lenders and investors his firm misled.
Wander, 45, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and securities fraud, AP reported. In court he admitted borrowing money in 2021 and 2022 on the basis of figures that overstated the firm's assets. The plea came one day before his trial was due to start.
What Wander admitted
Prosecutors said Wander used 777 Partners to take hundreds of millions of dollars from private lenders and investors. He did it by pledging assets the firm did not own, falsifying bank statements and misstating its financial condition.
When the charges were unsealed in October 2025, the indictment alleged that more than $350 million of collateral had been pledged that 777 either did not own or had already pledged elsewhere. Former chief financial officer Damien Alfalla had already pleaded guilty and was cooperating, and the SEC brought parallel civil charges against Wander, co-founder Steven Pasko and the firm, Insider Sport reported.
"At the time that I did these things I knew what I was doing was wrong," Wander told Judge J. Paul Oetken. US Attorney Jamie McDonald said such conduct undermines the integrity of the financial system.
A portfolio built on borrowed money
At its peak, 777 held stakes in Hertha Berlin, Genoa, Standard Liège and Vasco da Gama, alongside Red Star in Paris and an Australian airline. Its most ambitious move was a 2023 agreement to buy Everton from Farhad Moshiri.
That deal never closed. Questions grew over how 777 was funding itself, and a London-based investor sued the firm in New York. By October 2024, a London High Court judge had issued a winding-up order against a 777 UK entity, and the group's club stakes were put up for sale.
777 was not a fringe buyer. It reached the final stages of a Premier League takeover and ran clubs in four countries. The case shows that regulators reviewed the owner but not, in time, how the money behind it was raised.
Where the clubs are now
The clubs have mostly moved on. 777's lender A-Cap took over much of the portfolio, then sold Genoa, Standard Liège and Vasco da Gama during 2025. Genoa is now majority-owned by Romanian businessman Dan Șucu. A-Cap still holds Hertha Berlin and Red Star.
Everton came out ahead. The Friedkin Group bought the club in December 2024 and finished the new stadium. This month it said it is exploring a sale of a controlling stake, with a reported price of around £800 million including debt.
The lesson for buyers and lenders
The plea arrives as debt-financed ownership is under closer scrutiny. John Textor's Eagle Football went into administration in March after lender Ares moved against it, and leagues are tightening checks on where acquisition money comes from.
Wander's conviction will not return the money that flowed through 777's clubs. But it gives regulators a clear case for examining the financing behind a takeover as closely as the person signing it.