The owner of a pension-focused wealth management network that has run afoul of regulators in the US and Australia has taken control of Mondial Dubai. A financial consultancy based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Mark Donnelly, a citizen of the United Kingdom, has a 75% ownership share in Mondial Dubai. According to a commercial license from the Government of Dubai that was reviewed by Citywire. An internal email sent in November 2023 to Mondial staff members, which was reviewed. It stated that the company had a purchase agreement in place at the time to take on a new shareholder. 

According to a report from the company’s receiver, McgrathNicol, Donnelly controls a network of advisors called Brite that provides pension transfers and financial advice for UK expatriates worldwide. 

In February, authorities in Australia ordered Brite’s Australia-based custody affiliate to be liquidated and placed into receivership, leaving clients in the US unable to withdraw their funds. The Australia-based affiliate, Brite Advisors Pty Ltd, charged US-based clients undisclosed trading fees back in 2022. 

Donnelly purchased his stake in Mondial from former majority owner Sean Kelleher. A source with knowledge of the situation told Citywire. Kelleher was listed as a 25% owner of Mondial on the commercial license from Dubai’s government. 

Mondial was the first independent advisory firm to get a UAE central bank license, Kelleher has said. The company started in 1988 as Mondial Expatriate Services and was taken over by Kelleher. A business partner in the late 1990s, according to UAE news outlet The National.

Mondial, which has served corporate pension holders, said on its website that it provides ‘cross-border advice’ on financial matters. 

Donnelly has not responded to multiple requests for comment. 

Liquidation and legal troubles

In February, a federal court in Australia ordered the liquidation of Brite Advisors Pty Ltd for failing to file required financial statements. 

Brite Advisors Pty is owned by Donnelly through a network of two intermediate holding companies. A December of 2023 report from McGrathNicol shows. 

The Australian company held custody of assets for clients of $468m affiliate Brite Advisors USA. Which itself was on the receiving end of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit for alleged violations of the custody rule in November of 2023.

Brite USA’s business model was based on advising pension holders to transfer their UK-based assets to self-directed pension plans. To which the firm was providing ongoing advice, the SEC stated in its legal complaint. The SEC has also said that Brite Advisors Pty was borrowing millions of dollars against client assets to fund related companies.

The same legal complaint filed by the SEC stated that Brite Australia held client assets in omnibus accounts and used a margin feature to borrow money. The SEC went on to say in the complaint that the money was used to fund Brite operations worldwide, including in the US. 

A January receivers’ report from McGrathNicol lists eight other suspected contraventions committed by Brite and its directors, including failure to maintain controls for client assets and engagement in dishonest and deceptive conduct. Donnelly, as a ‘de facto or shadow director’ was listed among the parties suspected to be involved in the contraventions. 

The receivers have identified $8.9m of payments made by Brite to acquire other businesses. McGrathNicol suspects the payments were made, in whole or in part. Fom client AUM or funds borrowed using client AUM as collateral, according to the January report. 

The acquisitions listed by the report include DeVere Investments South Africa, which Brite bought in late 2019, and a UK-based financial planning firm called Basi & Basi Financial Planning Limited, which it bought in 2018. McGrathNicol also noted in the report that it identified 115 entities worldwide. That it understood ‘to be associated with the Brite Group and/or Mr. Donnelly.’

McGrathNicol’s investigative accountants’ report from the prior month said the receiver believes that Brite. Its related entities operate in 12 jurisdictions, including the US, UK, China, Gibraltar, Malta and Australia. 

In addition to South Africa, Citywire has reported that Brite also purchased deVere’s US business in 2019. South African clients have been transferred to a separate advisory firm after their funds were frozen due to the legal action in Australia. 

As of a month ago, Brite USA was supporting its own clients with withdrawal requests. Brite USA had told the SEC in February that clients were facing a number of ‘significant’ financial harms as a result of their funds being frozen in Australia. 

Brite USA has told the SEC that it is owned by chief executive Martin Byrne. Who took over at the end of 2023. Since 2019, Brite USA has received $19m from Brite’s Australia affiliate, the SEC’s legal complaint from November 2023 states. 

On Saturday, news outlet The Times of Australia reported that Brite manages pension money for 10,000 British expat customers worldwide. 

Donnelly has had a string of legal issues in multiple countries. In 2004 he was accused of shipping soccer merchandise that had not been paid for to his sister-in-law. Donnelly at the time was running a company called Metro Sport Limited. That was distributing adhesive soccer shirt names and numbers as official English Football Association merchandise. He was ultimately fined in the UK related to the activity. 

Donnelly moved to Hong Kong and worked as a financial advisor but was fined in 2010 by a regulator there for not disclosing the soccer shirt incident. The Times of Australia also reported.   

• BY SAM BOJARSKI

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