Tom Ludt has reportedly parted ways with Dubai-based thoroughbred investment fund, having served as its head of US operations for over two years.
The Racing Post has reported that Ludt, who joined Phoenix Thoroughbreds back in 2017, has come to a termination agreement with Phoenix’s founder, Amer Abdulaziz Salman, after he quizzed Abdulaziz about the allegations of fraud and money laundering raised in a US court in November last year.
Abdulaziz was accused by OneCoin founder Konstantin Ignatov in a New York court of stealing €100 million (AU$165 million) from the cryptocurrency set-up, which has been alleged to be an international Ponzi scheme.
Amer Abdulaziz and Tom Ludt
The November investigation resulted in a guilty verdict for former lawyer Mark Scott on charges of fraud and laundering US$400 million (AU$550 million) in illegal funds for OneCoin. Scott created a company called Fenero Funds which was allegedly to route money between destinations.
Both Abdulaziz and Phoenix Thoroughbreds have denied all allegations made in court and Ludt asked Abdulaziz about the veracity of the claims made by Ignatov.
“[The Racing Post story] was the first I heard of [the allegations], so I was shocked,” Ludt told Racing Post.
"We had discussions afterwards and he [Abdulaziz] completely denied that he had anything to do with it. I don’t remember the exact dates but there was some dialogue and I point blank asked what the heck was going on because I’d spent the last two and a half years of my life travelling the world for this company and I didn’t want to get dragged down with a bad reputation.
"I point blank asked what the heck was going on because I’d spent the last two and a half years of my life travelling the world for this company and I didn’t want to get dragged down with a bad reputation. " - Tom Ludt
“He’s continually denied it and he’s indicated he had investors from that company [Fenero] but never OneCoin. I’ve never been involved [in the fund], so I don’t know, but everything’s changed since then. I continued to ask him to do some interviews with the press to talk about it and he just wouldn’t do it. Everything changed when that came out.
“He told me that Mark Scott invested [in Phoenix] through Fenero, but that’s all I knew. He did not deny Fenero funds had gone into Phoenix.”
Phoenix has made significant investments in Australia and spent around $20 million at Australian yearling and breeding sales in the past three years. It celebrated its first Group 1 success in Australia last year with the victory of Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible) in the Manikato S. She would also win the G1 William Reid S. in March.
Phoenix Thoroughbreds owns Group 1 winner Loving Gaby (orange and white cap)
It also bred and co-races the G1 Golden Slipper S. winner Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), which won the famous Rosehill 2-year-old race in its white and orange colours for trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
Phoenix also owns around 30 broodmares in Australia and holds shares in several prominent stallions.
