A dilapidated one-bed home in Bolton has been found to be the official headquarters of a £50 billion global empire – despite being worth just £155,000.

The seemingly neglected , sat on a quiet street, is registered as the base of several businesses – all claiming to be multinational corporations spanning four continents. Among them are 1 Stallion Limited, described as a and mining giant with an annual turnover of £12.5billion, e-bank Ltd, which purports to be a bank raking in £952million annually, and Avanttulo SA Ltd, an oil and gas company valued at £12.5billion in shared capital.

The companies were uncovered by Dan Neidle of Policy Associates in a report that highlights a worrying trend – fraudsters and fantasists registering fake businesses on Companies House, including those masquerading as banks, often using fabricated balance sheets to inflate their worth and trick unwitting customers into handing over their cash.

In many cases, the owners of the properties listed as these companies’ headquarters have no idea their home addresses are being used. Nearby, another company, XYZ Investment Holdings Ltd (formerly Stallion Holdings Ltd), claims assets worth £7 billion and annual sales of £2.5 billion. An eerie post under its old name once advertised for “good looking and single” women aged 25-30 to apply for an “executive secretary” role, offering just a £4,788 annual salary.

Stallion Holdings Ltd even had its own website, designed to mimic the look of a legitimate bank. It featured a mission statement boasting of its supposed client-first approach, promising to treat clients’ businesses as its own. After reviewing the accounts of all the companies connected to the terraced house and the neighboring property, Neidle insists the accounts are fraudulent, citing a series of spelling mistakes and glaring red flags.

In the case of XYZ Investment Holdings Ltd, its accounts, despite claiming to operate in finance, state that the company is a “leading international supplier of components to the door and window industry”. "You can tell these accounts are clearly fake", said Mr Neidle, who spent 25 years as a specialist tax lawyer. He told MailOnline: "They contain strange wording and typos here and there. Then there's a line saying it supplies doors and windows, which is clearly copied and pasted from somewhere else.

"It's hard to say what the point of all these companies might be. What they are doing is not going to be something good. And it's probably abroad, because people in the UK would be likely to see that registered address and the accounts and be sceptical."

Under UK law, any entity claiming to be a “bank” must have a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). While there’s no evidence e-bank Ltd has ever been granted such a licence, another company connected to the Bolton addresses did manage to register with the FCA as a small payment institution.

Stallion Financial Investments plc applied to the FCA in 2017 for permission to provide regulated financial services but was denied after failing to respond to queries. It did not file accounts and was eventually dissolved. A year later, AR Worldwide Services Ltd was set up and successfully registered with the FCA as a small payments institution, listing Stallion Holdings Ltd as its first director. Small payment institutions like AR Worldwide can offer limited services, including foreign remittances, a channel that police have identified as a potential route for money laundering.

Neidle expressed concern that AR Worldwide, a company he believes is part of a network of fraudulent businesses, was able to gain FCA approval. The FCA confirmed that Stallion was appointed as a director of AR Worldwide only in December 2019, a month after the company was registered with the regulator. It added that it had since overhauled its vetting procedures and called for more powers to conduct thorough checks on firms seeking registration.

Neidle is advocating for stronger scrutiny before companies can register with Companies House. “I’ve spoken with pretty sophisticated business people abroad who are astonished that you can just register a company like this without any checks”, he said.

A Companies House spokesperson said: "We take fraud against the register seriously and all allegations are fully investigated. Since March 2024, we have been using our new powers to crack down on the misuse of the register by querying information provided by companies.

"Where incorrect, suspicious, or fraudulent filings are made, we will take appropriate action. We proactively share information with other relevant government agencies and law enforcement. We are developing systems and processes to enable more checks to determine the accuracy of information delivered to us before it is placed on the register."

The FCA said: "We have overhauled the checks we do on firms seeking to register with us, including undertaking financial analysis. We will take action if information we are given by firms is incorrect and we're not told of any changes."