Ex-Wonga boss ‘leaves his wife for Ukrainian’
He ‘moves out of family home with refugee lover’
A FORMER boss of defunct payday loan firm Wonga has reportedly left his wife for a Ukrainian refugee he took in.
Haakon Overli, 52, is said to have started his affair shortly after the Eastern European woman moved into his £2.9million Surrey estate.
The venture capitalist left his wife, Imogen, 48, and their children after the Ukrainian got her visa and the lovers have moved away, according to The Sun.
Mr Overli, pictured, has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine and was among those lobbying the Government to help bring refugees to the UK after the invasion last February.
The investor, who is estimated to be worth at least £5million, first told followers on Twitter that his family were keen to help a Ukrainian refugee on March 9.
It is claimed that he appealed to both Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel to speed up the process of bringing the woman to Britain.
He complained on social media about difficulties in the sponsoring process – branding it ‘shaming’ – in April. Local MP Jeremy Hunt apparently met Mr Overli and the refugee in his South West Surrey constituency shortly after she arrived.
‘It was great to meet a Ukrainian being hosted by a local family... nothing more English than the village fete to welcome them,’ he tweeted. Norwegianborn Mr Overli studied maths at the University of Oslo and also has a degree in economics from Durham University.
He made his money in the early years of the dot com boom after founding online stockbroker Self Trade in 1997. The entrepreneur sold it for £900million three years later.
Mr Overli, who has also worked for JP Morgan and was an investment banker at ING Barings, announced his engagement to his wife in The Times in August 2003.
He became a director of Wonga in November 2008, staying in post until the following June.
The firm was accused by politicians and campaigners of preying on vulnerable people and charging them sky-high interest rates. Former Labour leader Ed Miliband said it was a prime example of ‘ predatory lending’. Around 200,000 customers still owed a total of £ 400million when Wonga collapsed following a flood of compensation claims in 2018. Some customers faced interest rates of up to 5,853 per cent before the Government intervened, limiting the rates to 1,500 per cent. Wonga also charged interest at annual percentage rates that equated to 1,509 per cent.
Mr Overli has since cofounded Dawn Capital, which claims to be Europe’s largest specialist business-to-business software investor and is worth more than £2million.