Edward Banayoti or Ernest Anderson: Similar Scams with Different Names

In 2016, Edward Banayoti, owner of Banayoti Holdings Ltd., entered talks to purchase 49.9% of Air Malta. He submitted a formal offer to the Maltese government. The potential deal attracted significant attention at the time.

While shuffling through the old news section of ‘The Sunday Times News of Malta,’ I came across a name that piqued my interest in learning more about him.

A statement made by one of the spokespersons from Banayoti was reflected in the Sunday Times. “We can confirm that talks with the Office of the Prime Minister and other senior government officials are ongoing. We have submitted a formal offer for the minority shareholding in Air Malta (49.9%) currently for sale. We are now awaiting an official response from the government.”

The formal discussion of the matter with Banayoti has already been confirmed. However, the government has given no further hints about their formal agreement. As per the negotiation agreement with Alitalia, the government cannot open any formal discussion with any other party until the deal with the Italian airline is terminated formally.

The Sunday Times was able to find a lead and expose the government for breaching Alitalia’s negotiation agreement by attempting to open the conversation for the Air Malta sale with Edward.

While scrolling down the news, I couldn’t resist trying to find more about billionaire Edward Banayoti, for whom the government of Malta has gone beyond the negotiation agreement to serve him. That was when the shocking story came out front, sidelining the current negotiation talks.

Who is Edward Banayoti?

When I tried to Google about him, I found no information dated back to 2015. Banayoti is a billionaire, which made me presume his huge online history with many businesses worldwide. However, I was disheartened to find such little detail about him.

I continued my search and discovered that the guy was married to Princess Aisha, a major general in the Jordanian army who lives in Washington. Here, she is a defense attaché at the Jordanian embassy. Their marriage tool was placed on 27 January 2016. However, it did not last long, and only after four weeks did they get separated. The divorce happened in July.

This information did not make much difference until I found a secret about the guy. Edward Banayoti, who offered his interest in buying the minority shareholding in Air Malta, is not Ernie or Ernest Anderson. Under Canadian law, he changed his name from Ernest to Edward Banayoti. The smog started clearing, and I could relate to the intention of the marriage right before he changed his name.

This helped him find a cover for his long history of scams and frauds. That is why there is not much mention of his past business under Edward Banayoti. In short, Edward is a con artist who has lived his life with aliases.

An insight into the past of Ernest Anderson

Ernest is from Egypt and migrated to Canada, where he got Canadian citizenship. This is when he changed his name to Ernie Anderson. Being an Egyptian, he was not aware that Ernie was a nickname. Hence, he started mentioning himself as Ernest while on legal papers and remained Ernie. However, I couldn’t find a reference to the original name as there was no online access years ago.

After changing his name, Ernest Anderson became an investment adviser without a license in Ontario. He also owned Golden Gate Funds, which was unlicensed. This firm led to multiple penalties totaling $4 million. After this, he was barred forever from acting as an investment advisor.

In August 2013, a Canadian newspaper described the huge loss of 150 investors who invested more than $8 million in this firm. Later, when the firm died, an Ontario Securities Commission tribunal heard the case and imposed a fine of more than $4 million on Ernest Anderson. The court could not impose a jail sentence, so he managed to get away with the fraud. According to the last update on the matter, the penalties have not been paid to date.

Edward Banayoti and his current companies

When I got access to a PDF that listed the names of the individuals who had changed their names, I came up with proof of connection with Edward and Ernest as the same person. The pictures posted on the blog are of Ernest Anderson (left) and Edward Banayoti (right). One was when he was younger and slimmer, and the other was the age factor. But both pictures have the same person in them, Edward Banayoti.

I checked the company registered under Edward Banayoti and found two names. They both have the UK address of a virtual office that provides letter boxes without an office premise.

Founded in 2016, Banayoti Holdings Limited has been operating in the UK for eight years, with an initial paid-up capital of €1.8 billion.

The firm’s sole shareholder is Edward Banayoti, a prominent businessman born in Egypt. He was formerly married to Princess Aisha bint Hussein, sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah.

The company address is ‘239 High Street Kensington’. This is a flexible office building where he does not have a proper space but a mail service. Edward Banayoti’s offices in Mississauga and Toronto are also ‘virtual addresses’ operated by the Regus, a rental company.

This indicates that the name has only changed to hide his intentions, but not to change them.