A Bahrain-based company is facing legal action in Australia, according to reports.

One of Australia's largest residential land developers is seeking money from Western Gulf Advisory (WGA), the company whose owner Ahsan Ali Syed has just bought Spanish football team Racing Santander.

The Sydney Morning Herald claims Johnson Property Group founder Keith Johnson turned to WGA to fund a billion-dollar residential redevelopment in New South Wales.

It says the businessman claims to have paid an $81,000 (BD30,780) non-refundable fee and then a further $3.8 million (BD1.4 million) establishment fee to WGA last August to secure a $150 million (BD57 million) loan at 4.07 per cent interest.

The report alleges the loan was to arrive in November, but never came. 'Promises to return his $3.8 million were never fulfilled,' says the article.

WGA is headquartered at Bahrain Financial Harbour and Syed was earlier linked with a takeover of English Premier League outfit Blackburn Rovers.

However, the deal collapsed after WGA's licence was suspended by Bahrain's Industry and Commerce Ministry for allegedly operating outside its remit.

Since then a string of allegations have emerged against Syed, including reports of a trail of unpaid debts in the UK.

Our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) has made several attempts to contact Syed and representatives of WGA in relation to these allegations and the details of the Santander takeover, but has received no response.

WGA officials were unavailable for comment yesterday.-TradeArabia News Service