
We tell the story of how crime boss Christopher Kinagan went public, exposing his travels and connections through his Google searches. Using the pseudonym “Christopher Vincent”, Kinagan left reviews of restaurants, hotels and other establishments in various countries, which helped reporters from Bellingcat and The Sunday Times track his movements and identify the people he interacted with.
Last week, it emerged that Christopher Kinahan Sr., the boss of the wanted cartel, exposed his movements and whereabouts by posting Google reviews of restaurants, hotels and other expensive establishments under the pseudonym “Christopher Vincent.” He has described trips to Zimbabwe, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, the Netherlands and Egypt, but there have been no reviews of trips outside the UAE, where he is based. Kinahan Sr. accidentally captured his own reflection in mirrors and windows in some of the images, which helped prove the account belonged to him. Further analysis revealed new details about the people he had traveled with and interacted with in recent years.
Christopher Kinahan Sr.’s Google reviews indicated that he had visited Zimbabwe and South Africa several times. This is not news as the media has already reported on his attempts to establish an aviation venture in these countries and was eyeing Zimbabwe as a new base. Kinahan Sr. met Adam Wood during one such trip to Zimbabwe. Wood was associated with companies used by Kinahan and assisted in an attempt to acquire Egyptian military aircraft. They attended a humanitarian aviation conference in Egypt in 2019 together.
Kinahan’s reviews provided more details about these trips. He wrote: “I was here for the 11th Global Humanitarian Aviation Conference sponsored by the UN and the [World Food Programme]. The service and food were good, as were the conference facilities.” Among the images posted by Kinahan Sr. during that trip were photos of conference speakers and images of a dancer at a bar or restaurant.
Although Wood is not seen in any of the images released by Kinahan Sr., photos released by the ICIJ showed them together at the conference. Kinahan’s Google reviews contain interesting information that matches previous reports of his collaboration with Wood. In 2022, ICIJ and PIJ Malawi revealed that Kinahan met with Wood and other businessmen, including Iranian ones, in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2019. Images posted by Kinahan senior on Google revealed new details of the encounter at Thetford Estate, a nature reserve north of Harare. Geolocation of the meeting was confirmed by the 2019 video.
It is possible that the group was staying at a different residence during this trip, as PIJ Malawi said it received guest bookings for Amzani Lodge, about an hour’s drive from Thetford Estate, which showed they had booked several rooms for four nights at the hotel. Kinahan Sr also reviewed Amanzi Lodge.
“I stayed there for 4 nights for a business networking conference,” Kinahan Sr. wrote.
Kinahan Sr. did not respond to requests for comment, and Wood could not be reached.
Images from Thetford Estate, obtained by ICIJ and PIJ Malawi, showed another face that could be identified.
To the left of Adam Wood (in this image) is a man in a lilac shirt. Submitting this person’s photo to FaceCheck ID brings up a LinkedIn page for a person named Richard Reynolds.
This detail is obviously not enough to accurately identify someone. But this search provided an important clue that led to further confirmation.
Internet searches revealed that Richard Reynolds was reportedly found guilty of VAT fraud in the UK in 2008 and sentenced to four years in prison. Internet searches also revealed that there was a man named Richard Reynolds associated with one former Kinahan company. An archived version of MTK Global’s website shows Reynolds was listed as head of global operations for the now-defunct boxing promotion co-founded by Daniel Kinahan.
A publicly available document from the ongoing US litigation involving MTK Global Sports Management LLC details Reynolds’ full name as “Quentin Richard Reynolds” along with the aforementioned job title.
MTK Global has previously stated that it has had no dealings with Daniel Kinahan since 2017. However, the ICIJ report revealed that MTK Global’s Dubai offices are located in the same location as other companies linked to Daniel Kinahan.
Analysis of the Thetford and MTK images, along with other online images of Reynolds, suggests that the people in the photo are the same person. The details of the chin, nose, mouth and eyebrows in the images match.
The Instagram account of Richard Reynolds, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the man in these images, is only subscribed to a handful of other accounts. Among them is the same company whose networking event Christopher Kinahan Sr. attended in Zimbabwe in his online review of Amanzi Lodge. Reynolds’ account is also one of 27 subscribers to the humanitarian aviation company Crescents and Crosses, which Kinahan Sr. talked about in the letters. There is no evidence of Reynolds’ further involvement in this company, other than Instagram followers.
The World Food Program has confirmed that Christopher Vincent Kinahan has registered for the 11th Global Humanitarian Aviation Conference in Egypt as a Crescents and Crosses consultant.
The walk at Thetford Estate is believed to have taken place in late 2019, as Wood and another man pictured next to Reynolds were also in promotional posts for a networking conference in October of that year.
Web page archives show that Reynolds headed global operations at MTK in May 2019 and May 2020, indicating his involvement with MTK during this period.
Reynolds also appears in images of Thetford Estate published by Kinahan Sr. Images of Kinahan Sr. are the first to appear when searching for “Thetford Estate Harare”.
Zooming in, this picture shows the same person in the lilac shirt. Although in this image they appear to be wearing dark caps.
The Sunday Times reported that Reynolds presented himself while in Zimbabwe as a cryptocurrency investment adviser.
The Sunday Times and Bellingcat contacted Richard Reynolds by email, his Instagram account and phone numbers were listed online, but received no response by the time of publication.
Neslihan Yildirim is reportedly Christopher Kinahan Sr.’s long-term partner. Like Kinahan, she has also posted reviews on Google in recent years for establishments in the Netherlands, the UAE and India. Their relationship was first revealed in 2022. Yildirim was one of the founders of CV Aviation Consulting Services DWC LLC in Dubai. Nessi Yildirim’s LinkedIn profile lists her as the general manager of this company. Kinahan Sr. sent emails on behalf of that company to close a deal to buy the plane in 2019. She also owns a company called Merbia, which is linked to Kinahan through a phone number listed in WHOIS records.
An archived version of Merbia’s website from 2010 lists a phone number that also appears alongside the name “Christopher Kinahan” in a 2011 WHOIS record for the now-defunct globalplexo.com website. Records for this website were found by searching for Kinahan’s name on the WhoisXML API, a platform that can retrieve historical website ownership information.