Charles Webb has formally relinquished his position as Person with Significant Control (PSC) of Hanuman Partners, with control now transferred to Baviaan Holdings. However, Baviaan itself is a holding company, and its PSC remains Webb. This move creates further layers of separation, shielding Webb from direct public scrutiny. Image source: conceptual illustration.

Specifically, on 19 August 2025, Webb stepped down as the Person with Significant Control (PSC) of Hanuman Partners Limited and Sanzaru Communications Limited, transferring control to Baviaan Holdings Limited, a company incorporated earlier that year.

This continues Webb’s pattern of shifting control to opaque shell companies that allow him to maintain influence, actively fronting the efforts of the Sulu claimants and their funder, Therium, while avoiding direct exposure to public and legal consequences.

An array of latent holding companies waiting to be activated

This activity follows Webb’s modus operandi of continuing his business interests through companies he previously incorporated: Crisis Mechanics Limited in 31 March 2005, Ryedale Renovations Limited in 11 May, 2010, Hanuman Partners Ltd. in 26 October 2012, and Farekna Limited on 22 February 2013.

Of these, Hanuman Partners Limited is significant as the public face of Webb’s operations. It remains an active UK private limited company registered at Malton Office Centre, Jackson Yard, Showfield Lane, Malton, YO17 6BT, and is classified under SIC 82990 (other business support service activities).

Sanzaru Communications Limited, however, raises more eyebrows. Also registered at Malton Office Centre and classified under SIC 70229 (management consultancy activities other than financial management), it once traded under the previously mentioned “Ryedale Renovations Limited” with no indication it ever provided anything construable as renovation services before it was renamed Sanzaru Communications on 28 June 2017.

The timing of changes to Webb’s companies also attract scrutiny, with Ryedale’s name change occurring in a similar time frame to the first moves of the Sulu claimants’ lawyers when they brought their case before the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The reborn Sanzaru Communications saw a sharp rise in assets beginning in 2021, climbing to £1 million by 2023 despite having virtually no assets before then. This sudden growth closely aligned with the escalation of the Sulu claimants' legal campaign against Malaysia, particularly their efforts to seize the assets of Malaysian-linked companies across Europe after it became clear that Malaysia would not voluntarily pay nearly $15 billion in the aftermath of the Lahad Datu Incident.

New gloves on the same hands

It is worth observing the consistent names in Webb’s infrastructure of otherwise shifting companies. Hanuman’s directors include Webb, alongside Elliott David Hall and Peter Donald Walker (both appointed in November 2014) and Albert Michael Arbuthnott, a blue-blooded private intelligence veteran (appointed August 2021). Sanzaru’s directors include Webb (appointed May 2010) with the same trio—Hall, Walker, Arbuthnott—added later.

Webb most recently incorporated Baviaan Holdings Limited in the UK on 5 March 2025, registered at C/O The Numbers Business, Jackson’s Yard, Malton, Yorkshire, YO17 6BT, under SIC 64209 (activities of other holding companies). Perhaps to no one’s surprise, all three were also appointed to Baviaan the day it was incorporated on 5 March 2025.

It is to this Baviaan—with its familiar cast of private intelligence personnel—that Webb has relinquished his role as PSC of Hanuman. What’s more, Companies House lists Webb as Person with Significant Control, with more than 50% but less than 75% of voting rights and shares, plus the right to appoint or remove directors. Baviaan has also submitted two SH01 forms (received 4 November 2025, with allotments dated 19 August 2025) stating that it issued “consideration shares” as non-cash consideration in return for the transfer of shares in Sanzaru Communications and Hanuman Partners.

As such, while Webb has formally relinquished his role as the Person with Significant Control (PSC) of Hanuman Partners, he remains in effective control through Baavian. It is a strategic maneuver that keeps Webb in a position of influence while distancing him from public scrutiny.

“Farekna”, and the misleading classifications of Webb’s companies

The names and function of Webb’s companies also appear intentionally misleading and designed to appear innocuous before being rebranded later. Indeed, Webb’s Farekna had a SIC 45112 (Standard Industrial Classification) of “sale of used cars and light motor vehicles,” and sharing a feature in common with another of his shell companies, Crisis Mechanics: both companies do not employ anyone.

On the Malaysian side—where Webb spent his early career under another private intelligence firm, Control Risks, open-access sources support the existence and business framing of a Farekna Holdings Sdn. Bhd. CTOS lists it as incorporated 27 January 2003, with registration 0604908H / 200301002488, and describes its nature of business as investment holding and providing project management and advisory services in Wilayah Persekutuan. Separately, an employer-directory profile describes Farekna Holdings as a holding company with subsidiaries spanning oil palm plantation, properties, food manufacturing, golf retail and consultancy, and places it at Jalan Sekolah, Gombak Setia, Kuala Lumpur.

A second, more regulated “Farekna” footprint appears in government material: Malaysia’s MITI Open AP list (updated 8 January 2025) includes Farekna Auto Sdn. Bhd. in the KERETA category. That doesn’t reveal ownership, but it confirms a “Farekna” entity operating in a regulated automotive channel, perhaps more than a coincidental rhyme with the many mechanical and vehicle-related SICs of Webb’s UK companies.

In any case, the mystery of Farekna Limited in the UK itself is perhaps simpler, with its registered office recently moving in December 2022 to Malton Office Centre, Showfield Lane, Malton, YO17 6BT, in the same cluster of Malton addresses used by Hanuman, Sanzaru, and Baviaan.

The Real Headline of Opacity and Insulation as the Sulu Case Retreats

As external pressures mount, Webb’s intelligence-adjacent firms (Hanuman/Sanzaru) are now shielded behind the holding company Baviaan; Farekna Limited has moved to the same Malton administrative location; Webb is reducing his public footprint while preserving control.

Ultimately, Webb’s firms are worth a closer look. Hanuman’s 2024 balance sheet shows net assets of £1.735 million, debtors of £1.555 million, cash of £970,900, and creditors of £823,647 due within a year. Approved in September 2025 and signed by Webb, these figures are substantial enough to warrant scrutiny given Webb’s line of work, particularly the large debtors and short-term creditors, which raise questions about counterparties and cash flows.

Sanzaru’s 2024 balance sheet, reporting current assets of £850,980, creditors of £377,215, and net assets of £142,703, states an average of zero employees. While not unusual, this profile aligns with a company that acts as an administrative vehicle or pass-through entity, rather than a traditional business. The filings lack client or transaction details, highlighting an obscurity that can only worsen with Webb’s use of Baviaan as an additional layer of insulation.

It may never be clear what motivated Webb or how he assessed the cost-benefit of associating his businesses with the struggling and deteriorating Sulu case. His awareness of the dispute likely stems from his earlier work with Control Risks, where he advised countries like Malaysia and tapped into Southeast Asia’s political networks.

It might even be construed that Webb’s interest could stem from an inclination toward peerages and royal institutions. Webb has worked alongside members of the British peerage like Arbuthnott, and has built royal connections in the Middle East with his appointment by the Crown Prince of Dubai to the Board of Directors of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), the public authority overseeing more than 25,000 companies. It is a position that further expands Webb’s connections, though not always with intended results; only recently, it was reported that the father of the DMCC’s executive chairman, Sultan Bin Sulayem, resigned as CEO of DP World over ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

It can only be speculated whether Webb believed associating his name with the royal pageantry promoted by claimants like Fuad Kiram would be an additional feather in his cap, or if the imagined financial windfall promised by the Sulu arbitration was his sole motivation.

In any case, this latest move to Baviaan occurred in the context of the Paris Court of Appeal’s final annulment of the roughly US$15 billion “final award” against Malaysia. The claimants’ parallel and desperate ICSID suit against Spain—often described around US$18 billion—was likewise dismissed at an early stage.

In a scenario where governments are increasingly interested in repulsing and regulating cases like the Sulu arbitration, a restructure that reduces direct personal exposure and complicates tracing efforts looks like risk management—perhaps even a pre-emptive move against what the Sulu claimants and Webb expect next: cost enforcement, disclosure fights, and other downstream consequences.

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