ANTIGUA CONNECTION
Reuters has previously reported that Wright was filing patents through a company called EITC Holdings, which is based in Antigua.
Ayre lives in Antigua, and EITC Holdings is headed by associates of Ayre, according to one source close to Wright and one with direct knowledge of his business, as well as corporate documents reviewed by Reuters.
Australian Stefan Matthews, who began working for Ayre in 2011, was a director of EITC Holdings until at least late 2016. It isn’t clear if he’s still associated with the company. Canadian Robert MacGregor, another long-term Ayre associate, was a director of EITC Holdings until mid-April 2016. The documents do not disclose the shareholders of the company.
Matthews and MacGregor appear with Wright in a June 2015 photograph seen by Reuters. Neither man responded to requests for comment. Sources familiar with the company said they had gone to some lengths to avoid their roles in EITC being discovered.
In September, Ayre posted on his Facebook page that Wright was his “crazy/smart friend.” Photos on Ayre’s Facebook page show him and Wright boating and swimming together in what Ayre identifies as Indian Arm, a fjord near Vancouver, the previous month. A spokesman for Ayre, Ed Pownall, said Ayre was living in Antigua while trying to clear his name and was not doing “any interviews at the moment, on legal advice.” Pownall added that Ayre “wanted you to know the information about him is incorrect.” He declined to specify what information he was referring to.
