PB
I think you are right. There might very well be some silent partners in there with Lerner.
But I think the numbers you give don't fit. I would assume he (or they) bought AV PLC with money borrowed against some of his (their) assets. If Lerner owns shares worth £700M, even a 5% return of investment means he has £35M to throw around each year. That should be more than enough to cover the downpayments on a £65M loan.
He could then grant the rights to market the AV brand in USA to one of his companies. By the way, the US market is much better than the Asian ones as some PL clubs have targeted earlier, since americans can afford buying official merchandise, while the Asians would prefer copies costing only 10% of the price for official products. Anyway, he will make money in the US from the AV brand.
I then assume AV PLC would borrow against it's assets to fund transfers. And I don't really see a problem in that either, because Lerner has enough money to clear our debt if needed. I do not expect him to put his own money into the club unless that is absolutly necessary.
If there is silent partners in there with him, I'm sure that they too will use the club to make money in one way or the other. But I assume they too would require a rather successfull team over here for them to make money over there. So the last thing they would do would be to reduce the club's ability to compete, by taking money directly out of the club.
If Lerner, alone or with partners, buy the club, it will be an investment done for financial reasons. But it will require a successfull Aston Villa for him (them) to make money. So we have mutual interests.