Scotland football star Scott McTominay has launched a £2million High Court claim against a collapsed firm that was run by his WAG fiancée’s father.
The Napoli and former Manchester United midfielder’s company SM Fortress is pursuing action against collapsed investment business Fortress Capital Partners over a loan to buy a property in Portugal.
Businessman Ashley Reading, 56, ran investment firm Fortress Capital Partners alongside Cameron Reading, a model engaged to McTominay.
FCP had promoted annual returns of up to 18 per cent before collapsing into administration in 2023 – leaving investors including celebrities out of pocket.
McTominay, 29, has been one of those set to lose large sums due to FCP’s collapse in 2023 – in what administrators have since compared to a Ponzi scheme.
The footballer, whose goals helped Scotland clinch a place at this summer’s World Cup, is understood to have invested £1million in cash plus £1.32million from his own company into FCP.
Boyzone singer Shane Lynch, 48, is also said to have made a £730,000 investment in the firm.
In March 2024, FCP owed its 230 creditors almost £18million, having gone into administration the previous October.
Scotland and Napoli midfielder Scott McTominay is engaged to Cameron Reading – the pair are pictured together at his Serie A club’s Stadio Diego Armando Maradona
Businessman Ashley Reading ran investment firm Fortress Capital Partners alongside his glamorous WAG daughter Cameron Reading
The company borrowed money from its investors before lending it out at a higher rate to corporate entities and one ‘high net worth individual’.
Now SM Fortress, whose sole director is listed as McTominay while its registered secretary is Ashley Reading, has filed a High Court case against FCP.
SM Fortress said it funded buying a property in Lagos, in Portugal’s Algarve, with FCP to be involved as an intermediary.
A dispute is centred on whether that property should now be used as a potential asset to repay creditors following FCP’s collapse into insolvency, the Times reported.
The High Court claim suggests SMF wanted FCP to be a ‘pure intermediary, on-lending the £1million of funds to a Portuguese company’ to secure a derelict two-floor building near Lagos as well as surrounding land – then also hold it in trust for SMF.
FCP is said to have sought, after going insolvent, to claim a right of sale after loaning the money to buy the property – and also obtained an order freezing any SMF attempts towards planning permission for hotel or commercial development.
FCP said in its High Court response to being accused of a breach of trust and of SM Fortress’s rights: ‘SMF has no valid claim … over and above whatever rights it may establish as an unsecured creditor.’
Creditors are thought to have been owed as much as £20.2million by FCP, with administrators from Begbies Traynor saying they had recieved ‘an abundance of telephone calls and emails from the creditors who continue to express concern and frustration’.
Scott McTominay and Cameron Reading are seen here on the Amalfi coast in Italy
McTominay, 29, helped Scotland qualify for this year’s World Cup – the country’s first since 1998 – with goals including an overhead kick finish against Denmark in November 2025
In a 2024 report, the administrators said: ‘We are aware that many of the creditors have invested their life savings and retirement funds into the Company and we sympathise with the personal impact this process is having upon them.’
‘At present, the Company has no funds.’
And in a letter to creditors in July 2024, the administrators said: ‘It’s the nature of “Ponzi” cases such as this, that the costs of seeking to recover assets are high.’
What are labelled Ponzi, or pyramid, schemes involve paying off of early investors with proceeds from later investors.
The Reading family are said to have bought luxury investment properties worth millions across the world.
Scottish midfielder McTominay loaned their company £1million to buy the one in Portugal – with earlier reports suggesting he would likely only get £100,000 back.
Ms Reading – a director of Fortress Capital between April and June 2021 – is reported to have since sold homes in Dubai and Spain to cover debts.
She worked extensively alongside her father, previously being Fortress’ head of investor relations and described as an ‘integral part of the Fortress Capital team’.
The model was also employed as a financial adviser at Bounce, a company previously run by Mr Reading who had earlier been made bankrupt in 2010.
Other investors in Fortress included worshippers at the Tab Church in Lewisham, where Mr Reading was baptised, and Kevin Maxwell, son of the late media baron Robert Maxwell.
Also borrowing from Fortress was Raglan Country Estate, a golf course and resort in Wales, in which Ashley Reading was said to be a shareholder. Raglan ceased operations after Fortress’s collapse.
FCP was reported to have borrowed money from investors before lending it at higher interest rates to borrowers, including former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate’s agent Terry Byrne.
A company reportedly owned by Mr Byrne was said to owe about £12.5million to Fortress.
He was said to owe funds to Sir Gareth and fellow former England stars Joe Cole and Glenn Hoddle, as well as Michelin-star chefs – all having been clients of his agency 10TEN Talent, part of Round World Group.
Mr Byrne previously told Mail Sport: ‘We are working with the talent regarding the repayments. The most important thing to me in all of this is that they are repaid fully.’
A spokesman for McTominay said in November 2023 that he had ‘no involvement’ with Fortress.
The spokesman said: ‘He did provide a loan, on a commercial basis repayable with interest, for the purchase of a property through an entirely separate entity.
‘He had no involvement with, or awareness of, the wider activities of Fortress, nor of its financial difficulties.’
Insolvency practitioner Edwin Kirker is now supervising a five-year company voluntary arrangement with creditors that was agreed last year.
The Daily Mail today has contacted McTominay’s representatives as well as Ashley Reading and also FCP’s administrators for comment.
