Candy brothers turned down loan for missing skyscraper in 24 hours - I wonder why?

The missing skyscraper story I have been running on Betaville for the last couple of weeks really is worth keeping an eye on.

In another fascinating twist to the tale, it transpires that late last year, Thomas Gerrard Ryan, the mystery Irish property developer, and Hans-Olav Eldring, the former Credit Suisse private banker, approached Christian Candy's property lending division, Omni Capital Partners Limited, for a multi-million pound bridge loan to finance the Herstmere House scheme, a 74-storey residential skyscraper to be built in Canary Wharf.

In fact, I have seen several emails from Mr Eldring - the former Credit Suisse banker involved in putting the financial backers and lenders together for the scheme - outlining a whole list of Mr Ryan's £65 million "liquid assets" housed in a trust with Credit Suisse.

These assets were to be pledged as security for Omni Capital Partners' bridge loan and were signed off by Andertons - you know, those well-known accountants based in Catford, South East London. Here is a link to Anderton's website: http://andertonsaccountants.co.uk

Below you will see a picture of a note from Mr Ryan's accountants:

According to emails seen by Betaville, Mr Ryan's bankers at Credit Suisse were asking in late December 2013 for the Candy brothers' Omni Capital vehicle to provide a £12 million bridge loan that was scheduled to be paid back at between £15m and £16m on January 10, 2014.

The Candy brothers tell me that after a meeting and emails, they quickly suspected something was amiss after Mr Eldring started emailing financial details from a hotmail account instead of his Credit Suisse email account. Also, the Candy's thought it a bit odd that Credit Suisse wasn't providing the debt financing itself to Mr Ryan.

As a result, the Candy brothers decided within 24 hours against lending to the Herstmere House scheme and have some pretty strident views on the whole matter, most of which cannot be published for legal reasons!

There is plenty more to come on this story in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes on Betaville for further updates.

Mr Eldring and Mr Ryan did not respond to calls for comment. Credit Suisse declined to comment.