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Lap dance club owner Steven MacDonald – Mortgage Arranger – Iain Mulholland, (brother of Scotland’s top prosecutor Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland )
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14 Jun 2014: Immigration Raid on Lap Dance Club
Immigration officers raided a Glasgow city centre lap dancing club. Home Office enforcement vans arrived at Diamond Dolls in Mitchell Street at around 6pm yesterday. Officers from Police Scotland were stationed at the door for several hours. A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “Officers were in attendance supporting the UK Border Agency.” Diamond Dolls was the focus of the first episode of recent Channel 4 documentary series. (highbeam.com)
15 Jun 2014: Police Blitz Tycoon’s Dirty Dance Empire:
Police launch a massive, synchronised operation against a tycoon’s lap-dancing empire. Scores of officers swooped on three clubs and the home of businessman Steven MacDonald. Officers from Police Scotland, the Security Industry Authority and the new UK Visas and Immigration unit hit Glasgow’s Diamond Dolls club, Baby Dolls show-bar in Edinburgh and Club Earth nightclub in Livingston. Macdonald was on holiday when investigators arrived at his Livingston home as part of the raids at 6pm on Friday. Officers were looking for victims of human trafficking, illegal workers and drugs. (highbeam.com)
6 Nov 2014: Lap dancing Club Tycoon Has His Assets Frozen amid Probe
A ban on the sale of properties housing two well known lap dancing clubs has been made as part of an investigation into proceeds of crime. Prosecutors have secured court orders preventing the sale of the buildings containing Glasgow’s Diamond Dolls and Edinburgh’s Baby Dolls in a civil proceeds of crime action against adult entertainment tycoon Steve MacDonald.
The Crown Office’s Civil Recovery Unit (CRU) confirmed it was pursuing Mr MacDonald, who fronts the body that lobbies for most of the country’s strip clubs, because it believes his assets are the product of illegal activity. A Crown spokesman said: “The CRU has ongoing civil recovery proceedings against Steven MacDonald. (highbeam.com)
7 Dec 2014: Strip Joint Bosses Booted Off Holyrood Task Force
Two lap dancing bosses have been booted off a Holyrood taskforce investigating human trafficking. Steven MacDonald and Tony Cochrane were told they were no longer welcome less than six months after joining the group. Joint conveners MSPs Christina McKelvie and Jenny Marra decided the pair should no longer be members of the all party taskforce that also includes experts, campaigners and individuals. Labour’s Marra, whose Private Members’ Bill will result in tough new trafficking laws, informed the men’s lawyer Janet Hood of the decision. Hood, convener of the Scottish Law Society’s Equality and Diversity Committee, was also axed as a group member. (highbeam.com)
9 Nov 2015: Police Clamp Down on Dirty Dance Clubs
Lap dance bosses say police have launched a secret war on their industry after five more venues were raided. More than half Scotland’s 17 clubs have now been targeted in the crackdown. In Aberdeen, Private Eyes, Silhouettes and Number Seven Club were swooped on by a four-man police team on the same Saturday night. Dancers were interviewed individually and fingerprinted in the unannounced raid – but no arrests were made. Another target was Fantasy Palace in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh. Around a dozen investigators from Police Scotland, the Border Agency and the Security Industry Association spent an hour questioning staff including dancers. (highbeam.com)
15 Mar 2015: Lap dance Club Boss in MSPs Probe Call
A lap dancing tycoon has asked watchdogs to probe two MSPs who kicked him off a human trafficking taskforce. Steven McDonald was removed from the cross-party group just months after joining. Fellow lap dancing boss Tony Cochrane and lawyer Janet Hood were also told they were no longer welcome by Labour’s Jenny Marra and SNP’s Christina McKelvie. All three were locked out of a Holyrood summit on trafficking last year. Now McDonald wants the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life to investigate. He claims Marra and McKelvie breached MSPs’ Code of Conduct. (highbeam.com)
27 Mar 2016: Scottish Law Chief, Frank Mulholland’s Brother, arranged the £550k loan (Which is the Subject of a Dirty Money probe by the Prosecutor’s Office)
The brother of Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland is at the centre of a dirty money probe into a lap dance tycoon’s business empire.
Iain Mulholland, the younger brother of Scotland’s top prosecutor who announced he was standing down last week, helped prepare paperwork that secured businessman Steven MacDonald a huge loan now being probed by the Crown Office. Prosecutors hunting assets linked to organised crime claim MacDonald conned bank bosses into lending him enough cash to buy his Diamond Dolls strip club.
Investigators at the Crown Office, led by his brother, who seize dirty money, property and other assets linked to organised crime claim the businessman lied on a mortgage application to get a £552k cash injection from the Bank of Scotland to purchase the property in Glasgow city centre. Mortgage broker Iain Mulholland arranged MacDonald’s loan application through his First to Mortgage firm. The loan is now the focus of a major investigation by the Civil Recovery Unit (CRU). In 2012, Mulholland opened a new company building contractor Inglis PM Ltd of Glasgow. He is the sole director.
Chartered Accountants RES Associates also prepared documents for the Bank of Scotland application before the money was paid. Mulholland has been spoken to by CRU investigators scouring the documents around the purchase of Diamond Dolls. They say paperwork claimed MacDonald earned between £193k and £272k a year. But he told HM Revenue and Customs in his tax return that he earned just £19k in 2007-8.
His lawyers said the application was based on cash he could have taken from all his businesses including Edinburgh lap dancing clubs Baby Dolls and Big Daddy O’s, which is now closed. During proceedings, he was asked about property in Dubai. He told the court that he no longer spoke to Mulholland. (highbeam.com)
29 Jan 2017: Lap dance Club Boss Plans to host a £1K table dinner for Nigel Farage
A controversial lap dance tycoon at the centre of a dirty money probe is behind a fat cat dinner for Brexit mastermind Nigel Farage. Steven MacDonald is trying to organise a black-tie Q&A night with the former Ukip leader. Macdonald, who owns clubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh – met the politician at a private event last year. Now he wants to bring Farage north of the Border to talk to entrepreneurs about Britain’s divorce from the EU and Donald Trump’s White House victory. Those attending the dinner would be charged about £1k a table. (highbeam.com)
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