Back in February I reviewed the Carlauren Group’s C-Coin cryptocurrency investment. C-Coin investors hand over £70 per C-Coin and can then use those C-Coins to either buy care services from Carlauren, or cash them out on an exchange. Carlauren claims investors in C-Coins can expect “an increase in their core value”.
The BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones has recently reviewed the C-Coin as well. Unlike myself, he went as far as to join the exchange and buy a coin. There he found there was an “offer on market” to buy C-Coins for £189, despite investors being able to buy them at the offer price of £70. He attempted to buy a coin for £70 and immediately sell it for £189 but unsurprisingly failed to do so.
He then received an email inducing him to buy more C-Coins on the basis that they could be bought for £70 and sold at the “market price” of £189.
He was then told by Carlauren CEO Sean Murray that the £189 market price will only be available once all 500,000 C-Coins have been sold.
A market price at which nobody is able to buy or sell is not a market price in any shape or form.
The £189 market price is evidently set internally by Carlauren Group – nobody outside Carlauren would have offered £189 for a C-Coin when they can get them for £70. The implications of the C-Coin scheme allowing investors to cash out at a 170% profit once a certain level of investment has been reached are extremely disturbing. Cryptocurrencies with internally manipulated prices (as opposed to the price being set by supply and demand) rarely end well.
However, bearing in mind that Carlauren has so far managed to sell 47 C-Coins at the time of the BBC article (including the one bought by the journalist as a test), raising a grand total of £3,290 in Sterling, there seems little point dwelling on those implications.
If the present rate of 47 coins sold in six weeks continues, the last C-Coin will be sold at some point around the year 3,220 AD. At which point it is quite possible that elderly citizens will have bionic legs and brains and no need for care homes.
Movers and shakers news
Shortly after my review was published, the then Carlauren Group Marketing Director Seth Bishop commented on my review, accusing me of publishing “factual inaccuracies” “so significant I would need to write an entirely revised article”.
He failed to point out any such inaccuracies, other than claiming my reference to C-Coins being used to purchase care services was inaccurate on the basis that Carlauren’s care services are not care services because “Coins are used to pay for accommodation in resorts not care rooms in care homes. […] Our resort accommodation does offer care on demand.”
Seth Bishop left Carlauren Group a month later, according to his LinkedIn profile, perhaps sick of a job that involved making a fool of himself on blogs and claiming that a care resort offering care on demand to elderly residents isn’t a care service.
Bishop remains CEO of Accordiant Limited whose website says that it offers “Assured rental income – 10% fixed annual return on your care home investment”, which is the same rate of return that Carlauren offers on its unregulated investment in care home suites. Accordiant’s website suggests they are offering a service to investors who already hold care home studios rather than offering an investment itself.
This has got to be the weirdest thing I have ever read. I’m speechless.
No it’s not weird if you understand the concept, each coin has a tangible value of a nights accommodation in a carlauren resort which range from £150-£450 per night, therefore the minimum market value has to be £150 as per the market for a nights accommodation and taking a mean value across the board I think around the £200 mark is a great marker for this product!
I am a member of the carlauren group, and may I say the standard of accommodation is excellent!
With resorts all over the U.K. to choose from I personally would not be surprised to see the c-coin reach £200-£250 over the next 3-5 years as the company want all there resorts membership only and exclusive, that being said the average price across the resorts for one nights stay is around the £200 mark so it is fair to say this is a fair prediction in my opinion.
Well Paul and Graham, thank you for your independent contributions that were made from the exact same IP address within minutes of each other.
First perjury and now this nonsense.
In case anyone is wondering, the idea that C-Coins have a minimum value of £150 is only true as long as Carlauren Group is still willing and financially able to offer care services in exchange for C-Coins.
No-one else is going to offer £150 or money’s worth for a C-Coin for as long as Carlauren are offering them for £70.
Hypothetically,
I buy a C-coin for £70 from CG
The C-coin can be exchanged for 1 night’s stay (which retails @ say £150)
Therefore, I am notionally better off to the tune of £80.
Conversely CG is worse off by £80.
I rush out and buy more and so does everybody I tell about this marvellous scheme.
CG has a pile of cash
I/we have a pile of C-coins.
CG needs to ramp up the retail prices of it services, to recoup the shortfall of the offer.
The exchange prices (secondary market) drops through the floor, because demand for CG services has been curtailed by the price increases.
CG still has a slightly smaller pile of cash
I/we still have a pile of C-coins of significantly less value.
In a functioning market how could value of C-coins increase at a rate higher than the retail price index for CG service offering?
On the basis of probability the 5 year price of a C-coin will be: NIL
Absolute con the whole company is a glorified Ponzi scheme run by cheats. I would personally cash in anything I had with any of sean Murray’s companies and run for the hills.
Can confirm. Sean Murray personally demanded the C-Coin pricing fixed to £70. As demonstrated in the BBC article about Carlauren Group, this is not an exchange market as it was advertised, it is a fixed e-commerce buying magic beans!