MYSTERY DEEPENS OVER BACKGROUND OF CHINESE OWNER OF TEDDINGTON’S UDNEY PARK PLAYING FIELDS
The mysterious Chinese businessman who purchased and still owns Udney Park playing fields in Teddington is the subject of sanctions by the US over an alleged cyber-scam and money-laundering, it has emerged today.
According to the OCCRP – the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project – documents show that Wu An Ming, aged 43, a man of Chinese origin used as alias of Chen Xiao’er with a passport from the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis.
The report says he first used the passport under the name Chen Xiao’er in 2017 before officially changing it to Wu An Ming by 2020.
Using his current St Kitts and Nevis identity Wu An Ming holds about $45m worth of property in the UK as well as a vast portfolio of investments including companies and private jets.
Corporate records show that he set up a company in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) under his new identity, and used it to buy Udney Park playing fields for £3.5million in Teddington and a property in west London. He also purchased a central London mansion in his own name in 2022, which was partly financed with a mortgage from Citibank, records show.
Jonathan Dunn, the Chair of The Udney Park Playing Fields Foundation told Teddington Town: “if this is all established to be true then clearly the current owner of Udney Park playing fields is not a fit or proper person and has a dubious background, to say the least. I would urge the relevant authorities to investigate this man and his company links as a matter or urgency and enable us to return the playing fields to be a community asset.”
Local MP Munira Wilson, who has actively supported the campaign to save the playing fields and raised the issue in Parliament has been made away of the report about the businessman’s background.
In March 2022, he purchased a Victorian mansion for £30 million near Holland Park, in one of the most expensive residential areas in London. Records show he bought the property in his own name, rather than through a company, and obtained a mortgage from Citibank.
A few months after he acquired the Victorian mansion, Wu An Ming used his BVI company, Leisure Focus Limited, to purchase the playing fields, which have been the subject of a long-running campaign to halt any development and keep the fields for community use.
The facility had been sold off to an investor, who then sold it to Wu An Ming in 2022.
According to the OCCRP Wu An Ming did not respond to questions about his multiple identities but his assistant said he has appealed the sanctions against him.
Teddington Town has been in contact with Wu An Mings’s legal representatives.