Instagram influencer ‘paid more than £2m’ in Saudi Newcastle takeover

An Instagram influencer who had become close to the head of Saudi Arabia’s £500bn sovereign wealth fund received a multimillion-pound fee from the takeover of Newcastle United despite not playing “any substantive role”, it has been alleged.

Carla DiBello, a former reality television producer with connections among Arab elites, was paid at least £2m by the financier Amanda Staveley to secure the purchase of the club by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), according to High Court documents.

The allegations are the latest twist in a High Court battle between Ms Staveley and Mike Ashley, the Frasers billionaire who owned Newcastle for 14 years prior to the Saudi takeover.

According to the filings, Mr Ashley was told that an “introducer” to PIF would need to be paid months before the deal was completed in October 2021. At a subsequent meeting it was made clear to him that the “introducer” was Ms DiBello, an American who worked on the long-running reality series Keeping Up With the Kardashians and had more recently been named as a close confidante of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF.

At a meeting at the Marriott Hotel on Park Lane in May 2022, Ms Staveley allegedly told Mr Ashley’s representative that “Ms DiBello did not play any substantive role… but instead received payment due to her relationship with the head of PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan”.

Mr Ashley’s amended claim alleges that the payment to Ms DiBello was therefore improper and not an allowed use of the loan he provided to Ms Staveley for “costs and expenses incurred by the borrower and their subsidiaries in relation to the acquisition”.

On her personal website Ms DiBello, 39 and originally from Florida, states that she “helped PIF negotiate a $445m deal to buy a majority stake in England’s Newcastle United soccer team”.

The claims cast further light on the role of Ms DiBello, who through her eponymous firm CDB Advisory, offers “a cross-spectrum approach to facilitating new business opportunities within the Middle East, from finance and real estate to arts and entertainment”.

Through her active presence on social media she has promoted herself as an elite insider. Ms DiBello has posted pictures of herself meeting both the Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the leader of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, both at Formula 1 races.

Ms DiBello has more than half a million followers on Instagram and more than 70,000 on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The dispute between Mr Ashley and Ms Staveley concerns a £10m loan he provided to her to help her pay advisory, legal, and other costs associated with her own agreement to buy a small stake in Newcastle as part of the takeover.

Mr Ashley first alleged that Ms Staveley defaulted on the loan agreement when she made negative public statements about him following the sale. She was quoted in press reports as saying she was “looking forward” to Sports Direct branding being removed from Newcastle’s stadium.

“It’s a slight frustration when I go into the stand and I try and take a picture which doesn’t have Sports Direct,” Ms Staveley reportedly said.

Mr Ashley has also alleged that Mr Staveley was the ultimate source of a press report that claimed Sports Direct had not paid for advertising at Newcastle United for two years, that the club’s cash reserves were depleted when PIF took control, and that he had sought to remain a minority shareholder but been refused.