Terence Loh, one of the three co-founders of the Bellagraph Nova Group, has resigned from the controversy-hit entity. His name has been removed from the BN Group website.
Together with his cousin Nelson and Evangeline Shen Che, the trio were in the news recently for trying to bid for English football club Newcastle United. The high profile bid then drew intense scrutiny on the hitherto unknown BN Group.
See also: Bellagraph Nova Group mystery deepens after further scrutiny
After news of the bid was announced, BN Group admitted to Reuters that it had distributed doctored photos of former US president Barack Obama with the trio.
Under subsequent media scrutiny, one of the Singapore-based entities assumed to be part of BN Group, Novena Global Healthcare, was alleged to have forged financial statements. The police are investigating the case following a report made by auditor EY.
See also: EY files police report on Dorr Group-owned Novena Global Healthcare Group
In the statement announcing Terence's resignation, BN Group appears to be trying to draw a line between the various entities, and has all but stopped short of saying the trio have fallen out.
“We wish to point out that Novena Global Healthcare is not a part of Bellagraph Nova Group because we have not completed the merger before the Novena Financial Statement forgery news came out, and the same announcement also came earlier from Novena Global Healthcare side,” claims BN Group’s Nereides Antonio Giamundo de Bourbon, who holds the mouthful titles, chief marketing and investor relations officer, and head of Bellegraph Europe Middle East and Africa.
“BN group has never consolidated or is by any chance linked to Novena Global Healthcare and its forged financial statements,” de Bourbon further adds in the statement.
“We also understand the (sic) Mr Terence Loh is trying to solve the problems coming from Novena Global Healthcare’s incident, so we had mutually agreed that him (sic) should resign from BN group," according to the statement.
In Novena’s press releases from 2019, Nelson was listed as the company’s co-founder and chairman, while Terence was listed as co-founder and CEO.
The statement from Oct 7 made no mention of Nelson, nor Shen, their China partner.
BN Group’s website was previously plastered with photos of the three founders, which have been taken down.
However, the claims that BN Group has a total of 31 entities generating combined revenue of US$12 billion and a headcount of 23,000, remains.