the super rich

Comments (12) Add to My Stories He’s hugely wealthy, was married to Simon Cowell’s girlfriend and now (along with some high-profile businessmen) sends large amounts of money to the wife in Britain’s most expensive divorce. EXCLUSIVE by Angella Johnson
As gestures of generosity go, this one seemed rather baffling. Last week some of the country’s richest and most flamboyant entrepreneurs became embroiled in what looks set to become one of the most bitter divorce battles ever fought in Britain. Clothing billionaire Sir Philip Green, philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter, Jaeger boss Harold Tillman and Monaco-based film producer Stephen Kay have secretly handed over more than £1.2million to Michelle Young, who is seeking a £200million divorce settlement from her property developer husband, Scot.

No one really knows why Sir Philip and this group of powerful, self-made men – who are more used to dealing on the international markets – should have found themselves caught up in the middle of a bitter marital dispute.

Michelle, 45, insists her husband has hidden his assets to avoid giving her a fair financial settlement after more than 20 years of marriage. Young, who is known as a ‘fixer’ for the super-rich and includes music mogul Simon Cowell and Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky among his close circle, is equally insistent that he lost his millions in the property crash after the couple separated in 2006 and is reliant on his friends for funds: friends such as Richard Caring, owner of the Ivy restaurant and Labour donor, who lent Young £50,000 towards his legal fees.

Man in the middle: Kevin Cash (second right) at his wedding party in Morocco in 2000, with Scot Young (far left) and Michelle Young (right)
Intriguingly, next month in the High Court, much could be revealed about this fascinating alliance of like-minded men, who together wield enormous influence on modern Britain – from the glamorous world of showbusiness, to popular music, celebrity restaurants and High Street fashion. And it seems one of the things they have in common is a connection to Scot and Michelle Young’s bitter – and expensive – divorce.

But not all have courted a public profile. The Mail on Sunday has discovered that there is one man from this cosy coterie of supporters of Michelle’s living expenses who has so far escaped being identified, despite having made the largest donation to the divorce pot.

His name is Kevin Cash, an elusive figure about whom little is known, but who is said to be hugely significant on the London property scene, as well as a major player in the trade of Gulf oil. Through his company Rose Properties he gave Michelle nearly £200,000 between November 2006 and April 2008.

Cash, 46, has been married three times. One of his ex-wives, intriguingly, is Jackie St Clair, who became Simon Cowell’s girlfriend. Cash is reputed to be worth about £500million and his substantial property portfolio includes half of an exclusive row of mews houses close to the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair, homes in Marbella and Miami and a £16million country estate, North Aston Hall, in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Yet he has never been included on any rich list.

'He was very ambitious and intelligent' He is involved with a company set up to manage property portfolios for Premiership football stars, including the controversial Chelsea defender John Terry. And he is in partnership with businessman Derek Llambias in the exclusive London club known as The Fifty, where they can all meet discreetly over dinner.

Llambias and Cash are also closely linked in business with Mike Ashley, owner of Newcastle United Football Club and ranked 60th in the 2009 Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated wealth of £700million.
‘Cash is probably one of the most powerful people in London today,’ says a source. ‘He handles money for many super-rich businessmen and has managed to make himself more than any of them.’

Despite his enormous wealth, Cash does not appear to have any British-registered companies, but has based his business empire offshore. Rose Properties – which owns his impressive Oxfordshire estate – is registered in the Virgin Islands, where it is neither necessary to file accounts nor name directors.

Last week Michelle Young described Cash as being at least as successful as her estranged husband. She said: ‘He is Scot’s best friend and close business associate. They have known each other for the past 20 years.

‘They operated a system, with others in their set, whereby nothing is held in their names in this country, even though they are British citizens and live here permanently.

Untangling the web: Michelle Young at home in London last week. 'If Scot has nothing to hide why doesn't he declare his assets to the court?' she says

‘They operate below the radar. Some of them are well-known but others are very secretive men. They help each other make lots of money.’

So where are the roots of Kevin Cash, now dubbed the fifth man in the Youngs’ divorce?
He was born in Birmingham, the eldest child of company director Barry Cash and his teacher wife Sheila. He has a sister, Elizabeth Witka, 48, who lives in Bodicote, near Banbury in Oxfordshire.

Despite his relatively modest beginnings, Cash was determined to make his fortune. He married Nabila Benbrahim, a graduate of the University of Montreal and the Lycée Descartes, in 1986. Their son Sani was born in Westminster in 1988 but they split soon after that.
Nabila, who still uses the surname Cash, works for an upmarket travel company and is on good terms with her ex-husband. She recalls falling in love with a dynamic and ambitious young man. ‘When we met we were very young but he was always very ambitious and extremely intelligent,’ she said.

‘He comes from humble beginnings, but told me that he wanted to make his first million by the time he was 30. I’m not sure how long it took, but he’s certainly done that – several times. Everything he has, he’s built from scratch. He was not so keen on school, but is extremely intelligent.

‘I remember that he would work long hours and get up early. He’s very sociable, charming and always knows the right thing to say. I think that’s what makes him such a good networker. We are still friends and our son works closely with him.’

In 1990 when he was 26, Cash – who was already making his mark in property – married former glamour model Jackie Marinette, also known as Jackie St Clair, at Chelsea town hall. She was three years older than him and would go on to date Simon Cowell – who is friendly with both Scot Young and Sir Philip Green.

Back then, Cash was described as ‘good-looking in a laddish style, with tight jeans, leather jacket and perma tan’. He was said to talk authentic estuary English and to be ‘a bit flash’ because of his habit of driving round in a black Mercedes convertible, with the registration KC 555, and a mobile phone clamped to his ear.

Cash was already a millionaire several times over when he embarked on his third doomed marriage in 2000, to Frenchwoman Ariane Porthault, then 28. ‘It was a very lavish affair in Marrakech,’ Michelle recalled. ‘He hired a plane and booked the entire hotel for friends and family.’ But, she added, even in the midst of the celebrations, Cash and Young were hatching deals.

‘Making money gave them a buzz, and they were very good at it,’ Michelle said. ‘In 2005 Scot told me that Kevin was worth £50million. Scot was probably in the same league, if not worth much more. He gave Kevin a Ferrari or some other luxury car as a present that year.’

Both men enjoyed all the trappings of their vast wealth, owning fine homes in England, fabulous cars and a yacht in Monaco. They travelled by private jet and were waited on by a battalion of servants. Michelle’s weekly shopping was delivered to her mansion in Wootton, Oxfordshire, courtesy of Harrods.

Country mansion: Kevin Cash's £16million pile, the elegant North Aston Hall in Oxfordshire

Once her husband bought her a Range Rover filled with tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of couture dresses by the designer Maria Grachvogel. For her 40th birthday, he lavished £1million worth of Graff diamond jewellery on her. Young regularly stayed at London’s Lanesborough hotel, one the most expensive in the city.

As the money continued to pour in, Cash and Young consolidated their position, supporting each other in their numerous deals. ‘They were now major players mixing with oligarchs and partying with some very powerful men,’ said Michelle. ‘I went to a few parties, including Tom Hunter’s 40th birthday at his house in France, but I didn’t really like associating with Scot’s business friends.

‘Philip Green was someone I had known for many, many years. He was also a friend of my late father’s, who was in the import export business, and Scot and I spent a summer holiday on his yacht with the children.
‘But I preferred being in the country with my girls. Those people didn’t appeal to me. I found them pretentious. It was about who had the biggest yacht and the most money. I hated the over-the-top displays of their wealth.’

In 2006 her gilded life crashed spectacularly. Her husband set in motion events which would lead to her seeking a divorce and then told her that he was not just broke, but being chased by creditors.

'None of his businesses are in his name'
Michelle believes Young had been planning his exit from the marriage for some time and since then has hidden his money in a complex web of businesses and offshore companies.
She said: ‘Moving money around quietly and undetected is what my husband does. And since working for the Russians, Scot has learned a lot more about how to operate discreetly.’

It is a view which, for the moment at least, the High Court seems to think may have some merit. The court has already seized Young’s passport and handed him a six-month suspended jail sentence for contempt after he failed to provide the judge with a full explanation of how his fortune disappeared, seemingly overnight. In December Mrs Justice Black awarded Michelle £27,500 a month in maintenance on top of rent and the school fees of daughters Scarlet, 17, and Sasha, 15. He has failed to comply.

Michelle says she now plans to publicly name the people supporting her husband and show how he does his business. ‘It’s a complicated world involving intertwined share buying, multi-million-pound property deals and the film business,’ she said. ‘Before he left me, Scot bragged to my sister that none of his businesses are actually in his name and that his wealth had been protected.
‘I also know that he had some interesting ways of moving money and assets out of the country. I shall not only name names, but also show how they were linked together with companies and shareholdings associated with Scot.’

New girlfriend: Scot Young with model Noelle Reno in London in November

She says that evidence retrieved from the hard drive of a used laptop computer that Young gave his eldest daughter to do her homework on provides evidence that in 2006 he was worth at least £400million. It also links him and Cash in a number of offshore companies.

One document showed shares in Tina Green’s name in a high-tech company in which Scot also had shares. Although Sir Philip Green owns some of Britain’s largest retailers, including the Arcadia Group, and is Britain’s ninth richest person with assets worth about £4.43billion in 2008, the bulk of it is in his wife’s name. She holds Monaco citizenship and so pays less tax.

‘That’s how these people work it,’ said Michelle. ‘They don’t keep very much in their own names.’

Michelle remains sceptical about her husband’s claim that he is in poverty. ‘Some people say I’m chasing after what’s not there, but if Scot has nothing to hide, then why does he not just declare his assets to the court?’ she said.

‘He’s not done so, that’s why he’s in contempt. If he proved to me that the money was all gone, then I would have to accept that. However, I know the tangled web he can weave by using numerous solicitors and accountants on the same deal, making it difficult to unravel.
‘From experience, I’m also well aware of the lengths Scot will go to to hide money.’

She cites as evidence of Scot’s duplicity his appearance three months ago at dinner at Nobu in Hyde Park with the model Lizzy Bowden. His girlfriend – model and designer Noelle Reno, the former fiancee of banking heir Matthew Mellon – was noticeably absent.

Michelle said: ‘I discovered that he spent more than £700 on dinner and tipped the staff generously, despite him saying he was too broke to pay his children’s school fees. And he’s now threatening to make himself bankrupt.’

All of this serves only to strengthen her resolve to press ahead with her settlement claim. It is, she says, making the men behind Scot Young exceedingly unhappy about their involvement being made public.

Only one of the men she names in her legal papers was willing to respond to inquires last week.

A spokesman for Sir Tom Hunter said: ‘The money was given as a gift...he does not expect it back. Scot and Michelle Young are family friends, rather than business associates. His motivation primarily was that he didn’t want to see Michelle and her children faced being evicted and their school fees not being paid.’

The others, including the elusive Cash – who is said to be furious about his sudden elevation as a public figure – were unavailable for comment.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1261285/Kevin-Cash-Meet-elusive-millionaire-bankrolling-Michelle-Young-bitter-400m-divorce.html#ixzz0jTsjJQEk

Thanks for this .

i'm just jealous. ..they live in a different world eh......