Final week, Bellingcat and the Sunday Instances reported that wished cartel boss Christopher Kinahan Sr. had uncovered his actions and whereabouts by posting Google opinions for a wide range of eating places, inns and different costly institutions utilizing his alias “Christopher Vincent”.
The “Dapper Don” detailed journeys to Zimbabwe, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, the Netherlands and Egypt. Nonetheless, there gave the impression to be no opinions for journeys outdoors of his base within the United Arab Emirates for the reason that US Treasury introduced a collective $15 million bounty for info resulting in the monetary disruption or arrest of Kinahan Sr and his two sons (Daniel and Christopher Jr) in April 2022.
Kinahan Sr inadvertently captured his personal reflection in mirrors and home windows in some pictures posted alongside the opinions, serving to Bellingcat and The Sunday Instances show the account was his.
However that wasn’t all he seems to have unintentionally depicted in his posts.
Additional evaluation reveals new particulars about a few of these Kinahan Sr travelled with, dined with and interacted with lately.
Adam Wooden
Kinahan Sr’s Google opinions confirmed him visiting Zimbabwe and South Africa on quite a few events. That he had visited these nations was not new info. A number of media stories had highlighted Kinahan Sr’s makes an attempt to arrange an aviation enterprise in addition to think about Zimbabwe as a new base.
The Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) Malawi had beforehand reported that Kinahan Sr had met a person named Adam Wooden on one such journey to Zimbabwe. In line with stories from each organisations, Wooden was linked to a number of corporations utilized by Kinahan and was a key participant in an try and buy Egyptian army plane.
The ICIJ additionally reported that the pair had travelled collectively to a humanitarian aviation convention in Egypt in 2019.
Kinahan Sr’s Google opinions supplied extra particulars of these journeys.
“I used to be right here for the eleventh World Humanitarian Aviation Convention supported by the UN and [World Food Programme]”, Kinahan Sr posted. “The service and meals have been good as have been the convention services.” Among the many pictures posted by Kinahan Sr on this journey have been photos of presenters on the convention in addition to one other of a stomach dancer in what seems to be a bar or a restaurant.
Whereas Wooden is just not overtly seen in any of the photographs posted by Kinahan Sr, photos printed by the ICIJ confirmed the pair collectively on the convention.
Kinahan’s Google opinions web page did, nonetheless, include another fascinating info that seems to match earlier reporting about his engagements with Wooden. In 2022, the ICIJ and PIJ Malawi detailed that Kinahan had met with Wooden and a number of other others, together with Iranian businesspeople, at a location in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2019. Footage confirmed Wooden at a desk with a gaggle of individuals, together with one particular person in a baseball cap who was mentioned to be Kinahan.
Pictures posted on a Google evaluation by Kinahan Sr led to the invention of recent particulars about this engagement. It seems to have taken place on Thetford Property, a recreation reserve round an hour north of Harare. Bellingcat was in a position to geolocate the assembly to this location by evaluating a 2019 YouTube video displaying drone footage of a “Non-public mansion in Thetford” with pictures printed by Kinahan Sr, the ICIJ and PIJ Malawi.
It’s doable that the group was staying at one other residence throughout this journey as PIJ Malawi reported acquiring visitor bookings for the Amzani Lodge, round an hour away from Thetford Property, that confirmed they’d reserved a number of rooms for 4 nights on the resort. Kinahan Sr additionally left a evaluation of Amanzi Lodge.
“I stayed there for 4 nights for a enterprise networking convention”, Kinahan Sr wrote.
Kinahan Sr didn’t reply to requests for remark and Wooden couldn’t be reached.
Quentin Richard Reynolds
There was one other face seen within the pictures from Thetford Property obtained by the ICIJ and PIJ Malawi that it was doable to determine.
To the left of Adam Wooden (on this picture) is a person sporting a lilac shirt. Submitting the picture of this individual into the FaceCheck ID facial search engine brings up the LinkedIn web page of a person named Richard Reynolds.
This element alone is clearly not sufficient to positively determine somebody. However this search did present an important clue that allowed additional corroboration.
Internet searches confirmed Richard Reynolds was reportedly convicted in a UK VAT fraud case in 2008 and sentenced to 4 years in jail. On-line searches additionally confirmed that there was a person named Richard Reynolds related to one former Kinahan firm. An archived model of the MTK World web site reveals Reynolds was listed because the Head of World Operations on the now defunct boxing promotions firm co-founded by Daniel Kinahan.
A publicly obtainable doc from an ongoing US lawsuit involving MTK World Sports activities Administration LLC particulars Reynolds’ full identify as “Quentin Richard Reynolds” together with the aforementioned job title.
MTK World had beforehand said that it has had no relationship with Daniel Kinahan since 2017. Nonetheless, reporting by the ICIJ has proven that MTK World’s Dubai workplaces shared the identical location as different corporations tied to Daniel Kinahan.
Evaluation of the Thetford and MTK pictures, together with different on-line photos of Reynolds, seems to indicate that the people pictured are certainly the identical individual. Options on the chin, nostril, aspect of the mouth and eyebrows within the pictures beneath all seem to match.
Curiously, an Instagram account for a Richard Reynolds who appears strikingly just like the person in these pictures follows only a handful of different accounts. Amongst them are the identical firm (which itself has solely 12 followers) whose networking occasion Christopher Kinahan Sr mentioned he was attending in Zimbabwe in his on-line evaluation of Amanzi Lodge. The Reynolds Instagram account can be one among simply 27 others that follows a humanitarian aviation agency named Crescents and Crosses that the ICIJ and PIJ Malawi reported was mentioned by Kinahan Sr in emails they have been supplied. Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a proof of Reynolds’ additional involvement in that firm past following it on Instagram.
The ICIJ had beforehand reported that the World Meals Program instructed them {that a} man named Christopher Vincent Kinahan had checked in to the eleventh World Humanitarian Aviation Convention in Egypt, describing himself as a guide for Crescents and Crosses.
The outing at Thetford Property possible occurred in late 2019, given Wooden and one other man seen in the identical picture the place Reynolds was seen additionally appeared in promotional posts for the networking convention in October of that 12 months.
Archives of webpages displaying Reynolds was Head of World Operations at MTK have been captured in Could 2019 and Could 2020, suggesting his involvement with MTK continued all through the related interval.
Reynolds additionally seems to have been captured in pictures posted by Kinahan Sr for a evaluation of Thetford Property. Kinahan Sr’s pictures are the primary to seem when the time period “Thetford Property Harare” is entered into Google search.
Zooming in, the identical particular person in a lilac shirt could be seen on this image. Though, they seem like sporting a darkish flat cap on this picture.
The Sunday Instances reported that Reynolds offered himself whereas in Zimbabwe as an advisor on crypto investments.
The Sunday Instances and Bellingcat reached out to Richard Reynolds through e-mail, his Instagram account and cellphone numbers listed on-line for him however didn’t obtain any response earlier than publication.
Neslihan “Nessy” Yildirim
Neslihan Yildirim is reported to be Kinahan Sr’s long-term associate. Like Kinahan Sr, she too has posted Google opinions lately, describing experiences of institutions within the Netherlands, the UAE and India. Yildirim’s relationship with Kinahan Sr was first disclosed by the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in 2022.
She was reportedly one among two individuals who formally shaped Dubai-based aviation firm CV Aviation Consulting Companies DWC LLC, primarily based on a cache of paperwork acquired by the ICIJ and referenced of their 2022 report. A LinkedIn profile beneath the identify Nessy Yildirim lists “Basic Supervisor at CV Aviation Consulting Companies” in its bio.
In line with the ICIJ and the Irish Instances, Kinahan Sr despatched emails on behalf of CV Aviation Consulting Companies when making an attempt to strike a deal to purchase a Pilatus PC-12 single engine aircraft in 2019.
The “expertise” part on Yildirim’s LinkedIn profile additionally lists her because the proprietor of an organization referred to as “Merbia”, a reputation that seems on a number of commodity buying and selling web sites together with the contact “Nessy” or “Nessy Yildirim“.
An archived model of Merbia’s web site from 2010 particulars a cellphone quantity that additionally seems alongside the identify “Christopher Kinahan” within the 2011 WHOIS data for one more now-offline web site referred to as globalplexo.com. The data for the latter web site have been discovered by looking for Kinahan’s identify on WhoisXML API, a platform that may retrieve historic details about web site possession.
Bellingcat reached out to Yildirim to ask concerning the particulars on this story, together with these about CV Aviation Consulting Companies and Merbia, however didn’t obtain a response earlier than publication.
Bellingcat is a non-profit and the flexibility to hold out our work depends on the type assist of particular person donors. If you need to assist our work, you are able to do so right here. You can even subscribe to our Patreon channel right here. Subscribe to our Publication and comply with us on Instagram right here, YouTube right here, Fb right here, Twitter right here and Mastodon right here.
