Staveley rejects claim she wrongly paid Instagram influencer £2m

AMANDA STAVELEY has denied that she wrongly paid a Saudi-linked Instagram influencer as part of the Newcastle United Football Club takeover.

The financier is defending allegations by billionaire Mike Ashley that payments made to American Carla Dibello flouted a loan agreement between the pair.

PCP Capital, Ms Staveley’s investment vehicle, paid Carla Dibello at least £2m as part of the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) Newcastle takeover in 2021, Mr Ashley claimed in High Court documents.

Ms Staveley allegedly said that Ms Dibello did not play “any substantive role” in the deal and was paid “due to her relationship with the head of PIF, Yasir Al-rumayyan”.

Mr Al-rumayyan is now the club’s chairman. A new defence filed at the High Court by Ms Staveley’s representatives denies that the financier made the claim, and states that Ms Dibello was “entitled” to commission payments for her role brokering the takeover.

“Ms Dibello, acting through companies controlled by her, performed services as a broker in connection with the PIF’S desire to acquire shares in Newcastle United,” the filing said.

Payments to Ms Dibello were part of a cooperation signed in December 2019 between Ms Dibello’s firm CDB Advisory and Ms Staveley’s PCP Capital, the filing said. Ms Staveley also denied that Mr Ashley had been unaware of Ms Dibello’s role prior to February 2021. Mr Ashley’s representatives had claimed this was the first time Dibello had been mentioned by name. However, Ms Staveley’s defence said that Dibello was “likely to have been mentioned” during earlier negotiations.

It is the latest in a High Court battle between Ms Staveley and Mike Ashley over a £10m loan he made to help her pay costs linked to her agreement to buy a stake in Newcastle as part of the takeover. Mr Ashley has claimed Ms Staveley defaulted on the loan agreement by using some of it to pay Ms Dibello, claims denied by Ms Staveley.

Ms Dibello, 39, has emerged as one of the most enigmatic figures linked to the Saudi investment fund. The businesswoman, from Florida, worked on reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

She has posted pictures of herself meeting the Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, underlining her role in the Arab financial elite. Ms Dibello has more than half a million followers on Instagram and more than 70,000 on X, formerly Twitter.