A Liverpool developer became a Dubai crypto kingpin. Now he’s accused of defrauding investors out of $400 million

Dear readers — today’s story is written by Matt O’Donoghue, an investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The Times and on Channel Four, and who has produced documentaries for BBC’s award-winning Panorama series. The story follows Peter McInnes, a once-notorious name in Liverpool who has traded in his old life as a property developer for one as a Dubai-based crypto kingpin. It picks up on threads of reporting Matt has carried out over the past decade, stretching from the walls of a demolished Liverpool pub to Costa Rica and Dubai, then to New York, where McInnes is one of seven defendants named in a civil case with claims that street art by Banksy was used as part of a Ponzi scheme that took in over $400 million.

To the small and select crowd gathered for the ‘Banksy Exclusive’ opening night of the QubeArt Gallery in Dubai, ‘Paddy’ McInnes is both saviour and conservationist. Ever the salesman, McInnes and his partner, Kimberley McMahon, are flogging ‘limited edition’ prints of his Banksy Collection. 

“Our ultimate vision is a street art museum because these are museum pieces, now,” McInnes says grandly. “These aren’t art works anymore. It’s gone past that.” A video of the event, kindly shared with me by one of the beautiful people present, shows the self-styled art connoisseur and treasure hunter in full pitch mode. “These would have been lost forever if they weren’t restored, and that’s my passion,” he tells his audience. 

Behind him is what’s left of the once-enormous and elusive artwork known as ‘Liverpool Rat’, a six-foot rodent’s head which first appeared on the walls of Liverpool’s Rumford Street over a decade ago — and which has been subject to years of debate as to whether it is a Banksy original.

McInnes looks fit, highly polished and exercise-lean, dressed in a crisp white untucked shirt with very expensive-looking blue jeans and loafers. But not unlike the rat, he’s a long way from home. 

The name "Paddy McInnes" might mean little to Liverpool-based readers. The name Peter McInnes is more likely to ring bells. In fact, Paddy and Peter are one and the same. In Liverpool, Peter McInnes was the developer best associated with the failed New Chinatown scheme. In 2017, he was named in a proceeds of crime court case as a money launderer for the Clarke brothers, two of the city’s most high-profile drug dealers (McInnes has always strenuously denied the claim). Anyway, those days are long behind him. McInnes now lives the aspirational low-tax high life so many successful Brits aim to achieve, swapping the porta-cabins of a Merseyside property developer for a place on the Persian Gulf. The Post has seen copies of his new passport with his new name: Patrick.

Weeks before the gallery opening night, McInnes posted a picture of himself taking delivery of the purported Banksy artwork. The most meta of snaps shows McInnes in the foreground as he frames his own shot to capture the moment. In the background, five sports cars – the very low and super-shiny sort beloved by footballers – are parked side by side.

In all the many years I have known him and covered his exploits, McInnes has never looked so well. But a little under 7,000 miles and two oceans away from his Instagrammable life in Dubai, a different picture is coming into focus. McInnes is named in New York as one of seven defendants in a civil case alleging they engineered a $400 million fraud, in part by offering McInnes’ art collection as collateral for cryptocurrency transactions.

"The brilliance of this crew was just how convincing they were, even to seasoned investors,” says Claudia on a call from her home in Vienna. She lost around $10,000 of her family’s savings in what is now claimed to be a multi-layered Ponzi scam. The emerging market she dipped into is filled with confidence tricksters. There are also genuine opportunities for those prepared to do their research and Claudia believed this was one. She asked us not to use her full name, fearing a potential backlash.