Married millionaire ex-Wonga boss, 52, ‘dumps his wife for homewrecker Ukrainian refugee and moves in with his mistress ‘
- Haakon Overli, 52, from Surrey, is understood to have left his family home
- Millionaire investor has actively lobbied politicians to help Ukrainian refugees
- The entrepreneur is a former director of disgraced payday loan firm Wonga
A former boss of disgraced payday loan firm Wonga has reportedly ditched his wife for a Ukrainian refugee.
Investor and dotcom entrepreneur Haakon Overli, 52, is said to have begun a love affair with the Eastern European woman after taking her into the family home in Surrey following the Russian invasion.
But the married millionaire apparently left his spouse for the Ukrainian and moved into the pool house on the estate with her, according to The Sun.
Mr Overli is said to have lobbied the government to help bring refugees to the UK from Ukraine.
He is also reported to have began weeks of lobbying Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel in March to speed up the process of bringing his now girlfriend to Britain.
Haakon Overli, 52, is said to have begun a love affair with the Eastern European woman after taking her into the family home in Surrey following the Russian invasion
Mr Overli is the former director of disgraced payday loan firm Wonga, which charged annual interest rates equal to 1,509 per cent
Just a few months after the Ukrainian refugee was granted a visa, she and Mr Overli moved out of the family estate in Surrey.
Mr Overli repeatedly Tweeted his support for brining Ukrainian refugees to the UK at the beginning of Russia’s invasion in March.
Norwegian-born Mr Overli, who studied maths at the University of Oslo and also has a degree in economics from Durham University, made his money in the early years of the dot com boom after founding online stockbroker Self Trade.
The company was floated in April 2000 and sold in October that year for more than £900million.
Mr Overli has also worked for JP Morgan and as an investment banker at ING Barings.
He also served as a director at controversial British payday loan firm Wonga for a year in 2008.
Norwegian-born Overli has been active on Twitter supporting the plight of Ukrainian refugees (image of refugees from March 19 this year)
The company fell into administration in 2018, having been heavily criticised by politicians, including Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, as a leading example of ‘predatory lending’, having agreed loans to people who would never have been able to repay them.
Around 200,000 customers still owed a total of £400 million when Wonga collapsed following a flood of compensation claims.
Campaigners accused the controversial firm of being a ‘legal loan shark’ and exploiting customers by offering small loans which rapidly built up astronomical interest rates which many struggled to pay back.
Some customers faced interest rates of up to 5,853 per cent before the government intervened, limiting the rats to 1,500 per cent.
Wonga also charged interest at annual percentage rates that equated to an eye-watering 1,509 per cent.
In the years after his time at Wonga, Overli co-founded Dawn Capital, which describes itself as Europe’s largest specialist business-to-business software investor.
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