Before the 2020 US election, UBS helped Dominion Voting System to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. The abnormal trading process and post-election behavior raised questions about Dominion’s ownership — CCP may be involved and is an indirect investor of Dominion.
Staple Street Capital Group LLC, a New York-based private equity firm, acquired Dominion Voting Systems in 2018.
New York-based UBS Securities LLC helped Staple Street raise $400 million on Oct. 8. Ubs Securities is a subsidiary of UBS Group.
Neither Staple Street nor UBS disclosed details of other investors and questions about Dominion’s ownership persisted. There is speculation that Chinese companies or Chinese intermediaries could participate in the $400m investment and become indirect investors in the Dominion.
Staple Street’s $400 million financing is unusual. Buyouts Insider reported in October that the funding was’ a one-off ‘and that Staple Street has continued to push marketing despite the outbreak.
The goal was $400 million, but it eventually raised $520 million, the report said. Ubs helped raise most of the money, according to SECURITIES and Exchange Commission records.
An executive at a large New York hedge fund, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the speed and structure of the funding from Staple Street had been unusual. “Private equity typically takes a year to raise and has to be closed multiple times,” he said. If there is only one delivery and only a single strategic client holds all the money, that may be a case where only one bank is involved.”
Staple Street didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Ubs, Dominion and its parent are acting strangely
The unusual move at UBS Securities in New York came just after Staple Street completed its fundraising and US election day.
Luo Qiang, Ye Xiang and Mu Lina, the three Chinese members of UBS Securities’ board, disappeared from the website after Bloomberg disclosed the situation. Questions have been raised as to whether UBS made the move because of media reports.
Ubs Securities is a “limited liability company (LLC),” a form of company that does not necessarily have a board of directors, but can be formed optionally. The SECURITIES and Exchange Commission’s late 2019 report did not reveal any information about the UBS securities board.
Luo Qiang, who is French, and Luo Qiang, who is Chinese, all three have close ties to UBS Securities Co. in Beijing, which is 49 percent owned by the Communist party government.
The unusual presence of Chinese citizens on the board of directors of UBS’s New York offices has raised questions about whether the bank has interim compliance purposes, such as requiring a special deal to be approved by the board.
Ubs did not respond to requests for comment.
Ye Xiang was a board member of both UBS Securities and UBS In Beijing before his name was removed from both companies’ websites, according to public filings. He was chairman of the board of UBS in Beijing for 10 years and previously worked at the Central bank of the Communist Party and then at the Hong Kong Financial Regulatory Authority. He is also the founder of VisionGain Capital Limited.
Luo Qiang was a board member of both UBS Securities and UBS In Beijing from 2004 to 2012.
Mu Lina, who served on the ubs Securities board as well as head of wealth management funds and fund operations at UBS in Beijing, was a member of the board of China TransInfo, a major Chinese maker of surveillance cameras, for six years before leaving in September. Beida, which provides big data and artificial intelligence services to the Communist Party of China government, has a Communist Party member as its chairman.
According to an investigation report, ubs in Beijing replaced 11 of its 14 board members immediately after the U.S. election.
Ubs is the first fully licensed foreign securities firm in China. The board and executives of UBS in Beijing are all Chinese nationals with deep Communist Party roots.
“Information now available indicates that Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion Voting Systems) was acquired by CCP (Communist China) October 8 for $400 million,” said Lin Wood, a prominent American lawyer, via Twitter on December 1.
Dominion responded by issuing a statement saying it was a non-partisan US company with no ties to the Communist Party of China, Cuba or Venezuela.
Shortly after Election Day in the US on November 3, Staple Street’s website was completely reposted, removing all information about the company’s founders and portfolio, including links between the company and the Dominion.
Dominion is also making unusual postelection moves in the US, with a third of its staff — more than 100 — dropping LinkedIn records, including Dominion employees in Serbia.
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