The Macao investors in that mysterious $100 million New Jersey deli sure are hard to find

The building’s lower five floors are owned by Rui Jose da Cunha, a founding partner at CC Lawyers and Notaries — one of Macao’s top legal firms — which has its offices there.

None of the Hometown International investors or any of their managers or owners are listed by name on the directory in the building’s lobby.

But a company called Gestores de Projetos Limitada — or Project Managers Limited in Portuguese — is listed as a tenant of the first floor.

That same floor — whose walls feature Chinese calligraphy and a painting of the Ruins of St. Paul’s, a Catholic religious complex in Macao — is the legal address for all of the Hometown International investors in the city with the exception of VCH.

Gestores de Projetos Limitada, also known as GEP, provides accounting services to small- and medium-sized business in Macao.

“Whether you need to outsource your payroll tasks or to get an expert opinion on an investment opportunity in Macao, we’re able to assist you in a timely and cost-effective manner,” GEP’s website says.

“We also work closely with one of the biggest law firms in Macao to assure your company stays compliant with the laws of Macao and to assist you in a wide array of services, including company incorporation or appointment and removal of directors,” the site says.

When the reporter asked a GEP employee about Global Equity Limited, that person said GEP provides “services to this company,” indicating that Global Equity has an address in GEP’s office.

The employee then called a partner in GEP, Rui Pedro Cunha, who told CNBC he was not familiar with the names of the entities known to be Hometown International investors.

Cunha said GEP services companies that want an address in Macao. Those client companies get mail delivered to GEP, which then forwards it on to the companies, he said.

“Usually, we do that in the cases of companies that are using our accounting services,” said Cunha, whose father is the owner of the building’s bottom five floors and the CC law firm.

Cunha said that he would check to see if the Hometown International investors were among GEP’s clients.

Cunha later emailed CNBC, saying, “I cannot confirm which company is (or isn’t) a client of GEP, but if GEP is handling mail for a company and receives mail for them, GEP will be sure to forward it.”

CNBC then replied, asking him to forward requests to the Hometown International investors and associated people that they contact a reporter so that they could answer questions for this article, and comment for it.

On the building’s fifth floor — the purported location of the investor VCH — there is another company called CC Secretariado Limitada, or CC Corporate Services Limited.

That company provides auditing and accounting services, in addition to domiciliation and administration services to companies that have no physical presence in Macao.

A person at that firm declined to comment to CNBC

Correction: An earlier version misspelled Michael Tyldesley’s last name.

— Catarina Domingues reported in Macao for CNBC.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/06/100-million-new-jersey-deli-has-macao-investors-who-are-hard-to-find.html