Bellagraph Nova Group also said some of the information in those materials was released prematurely or contained errors after Reuters found inconsistencies when speaking to firms and persons BN Group says it is involved with.
No company called Bellagraph Nova Group is registered in France, according to official online records checked by Reuters on Friday. Reuters could not find any company by that name at the address it has given - 10 Place Vendome - when a reporter visited on Tuesday. While Shen and the Lohs had photos taken with Obama at a charity event they sponsored in Singapore on Dec. 14, BN Group's Bourbon said some of the photos published in press releases on its website and sent to media had been edited to make it look as though Obama was in a private meeting.
The photographer who took the pictures confirmed to Reuters that they were taken at the gala event in Singapore. If BN Group's bid is accepted, the English Premier League would then carry out its owners and directors test which involves looking into the backgrounds of the people involved to assess their suitability to own a soccer club.
Reuters found no record of any company registered in France called Bellagraph Nova Group on the online database of the Registries of the Commercial Courts, the French state agency that holds company information. Hydra X said BN Group was not a shareholder. It said in an emailed statement to Reuters that it was privately owned, predominantly by individual investors, and that it shared no legal or beneficial owners with the BN Group, nor was part of, or a subsidiary, of the BN Group.