Park Lane Club, an upscale cardroom in London, is currently on hiatus after its owner, Silverbond Enterprises, lost its gaming license at the beginning of the month. The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) determined that the company’s leadership – primarily, Latvian entrepreneur Vasilijis Melniks – wasn’t deserving of a license due to an ongoing investigation into Melniks and his alleged ties to embezzlement and money laundering in Ukraine. However, there’s a problem. Melniks is not the head of Silverbond and it now appears that no one outside of the company knows who the real owner is. 

The UK has an obscure law that will most likely be amended now that the Park Lane Club mystery has surfaced. The UK Companies Act states in Section 790ZG that directors of certain public companies are not required to identify themselves if, by doing so, their safety could be put at risk. The cardroom has used this law to keep its leadership under wraps, but it was previously known that Melniks was leading Silverbond. According to a company representative, though, he hasn’t been involved with the company in over two years. 

Park Lane Club Compliance Director Debbie Dunn told The Evening Standard, “Following the sale of the company in 2018, [Mr.] Melniks is no longer a shareholder nor a director of the company, so we are unable to comment on his affairs.” However, she wouldn’t elaborate, asserting that the company is “currently going through a protracted corporate change of control process” that could be compromised if she were to reveal any additional details. 

In 2018, Melniks found himself in the hot seat as a Ukrainian court judge ordered his assets frozen. He has been accused of embezzling and laundering around $64 million from the country’s state-owned energy company, and that court action led the UKGC to investigate whether Silverbond should hold a license. Apparently, according to the gaming regulator, it shouldn’t.