Teddington's Udney Park playing fields has been subject of sanctions by the US over an alleged cyber scam and money laundering, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCRP).

The OCRP reports that  documents show that the 43-year-old owner of the Udney Park land, Wu An Ming, has used an allias of Chen Xiao'er with a passport from the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis.

The report says he first used the passport under the name Chen Xiao'er in 2017 before officially changing it to Wu An Ming by 2020.

Using his current St Kitts and Nevis identity, Wu An Ming holds around $45m worth of property in the UK as well as a vast portfolio of investments including companies and private jets.

Corporate records show that he set up a company, Leisure Focus, in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) under his new identity and used it to buy former university sports ground, Udney Park playing fields, for £3.5million from Quantum, after a lengthy sales campaign by the estate agents, Savills.

"Since then, the fields have remained out of use apart from floodlight rugby training by Teddington RFC. Leisure Focus are an opaque business based in the British Virgin Islands and until now not much had been known about the company or Mr Wu," said Jonathon Dunn, the Chair of The Udney Park Playing Fields Foundation.

He also purchased a mansion in Holland Park for £30millionhis own name in 2022, which was partly financed with a mortgage from Citibank, records show.

By that time, the Cambodia-based network, which the U.S. Treasury Department labelled the "Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization," had already spent years allegedly leeching billions of dollars from victims around the world.

advertisement

Chen Xiao'er" was sanctioned by the U.S. in relation to a company that was developing a luxury resort on an island it leased in the Pacific nation of Palau.

Incorporation documents show that a Saint Kitts and Nevis national going by that name set up the company, along with Chen Zhi, the head of the Prince Group.

The OCRP reports that Wu An Ming did not respond to questions about his multiple identities.

His assistant said he was a "long-time acquaintance" of Chen Zhi, but their only business together was in relation to the Palau resort. That project was "unjustly sanctioned," and Wu An Ming has appealed the sanctions against him, the assistant added.

"Mr. Wu has had no further business cooperation, financial interests, or equity relationship with Mr. Chen Zhi or the Prince Group," the assistant said in an emailed response to questions from the OCRP.

"For many years, Mr. Wu has engaged independently in stock and emerging technology investments, all of which are fully verifiable through lawful documentation," the OCRP reports.

According to OCRP, The UK, which imposed sanctions of its own on the Prince Group in cooperation with the US, did not target "Chen Xiao'er" — or his legally-valid name, Wu An Ming. 

The OCRP said: "The U.K. Foreign Commonwealth Office declined to say if authorities were aware of his London properties and multiple identities.

advertisement

"The office said in an emailed response to questions that "it doesn't comment on its designations process."

Local community group, the Udney Park Community Fields Association, is hoping to purchase the land and restore it to its purpose as a playing fields, but Mr Wu is demanding a purchase price of £3.5million.

Responding to the news about Mr Wu, Dunn told Teddington Nub News: "The charitable Foundation set up to buy the fields and return them to community use has notified Mr Wu that any offer to buy the land is withdrawn due to the facts that are still emerging, about the status of Mr Wu and the source of his funding."

Local MP, Munira Wilson, has also urged the government to amend the rules of its Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, to help community groups purchase land like the Udney Park playing fields.