Blackmore Bonds, which issues unregulated loan notes in its property development business, is a few days late in paying quarterly interest to some investors, according to reports in Money Marketing and the Telegraph.
According to Bond Review readers and The Telegraph, Blackmore’s switchboard is jammed with worried investors and it is not answering emails.
A Blackmore spokesman told The Telegraph:
Due to delays in the banking system, a number of client interest coupons may not yet have been processed. We are working hard to resolve the issue and are confident it will be resolved imminently.
Normally a company being a few days late in paying interest would be no big deal.
Especially when you consider that in March, Blackmore stated that it was obtaining Return on Capital Employed of 54% and that this was sufficient to meet the high rates of return required to return up to 9.9% to investors while paying commission of up to 20%.
But the collapse of London Capital & Finance in February, and the fact that Blackmore used the same marketing agent as LCF (and paid it up to 20% commission), appears to have spooked some investors and caused them to keep a close eye on their regular payments.
This is borne out by Blackmore’s Trustpilot reviews, which over the last 48 hours have seen a spate of 1-star reviews from worried investors.
Didn’t receive coupon last day of month 31/7 and couldn’t get through. They also appear to have delayed filing the annual accounts. All alarming and concerned end up like LCF scam.
Unfortunately lack of communication breeds mistrust and it is quite understandable that investors are worried due to the collapse of London Capital and Finance, a similar venture.
As per previous posts i am also getting quite worried regarding my investments with Blackmore..I am now preparing for worst case scenario..??
This will be of great concern to Blackmore which prominently advertises a 5-star Trustpilot logo on the front page of its website. At time of writing this is no longer accurate as Trustpilot shows its average rating has dropped to 4 stars.
Blackmore Bonds closed to new business from UK investors in April, but continues to invite overseas investors to invest via blackmoreinternational.com. Obtaining information about its bonds via the blackmoreinternational.com requires prospective investors to declare that they are not from the UK.
To boost its attempts to secure investment from outside the UK, Blackmore opened an office in Dubai this year, with further offices planned in Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Last month Blackmore Bonds used a loophole in the Companies Act to delay filing accounts. Blackmore Bonds says it will file accounts next month in September, after changing its auditor.
Blackmore’s Trustpilot page currently states that it has raised £35 million from investors in its bonds.
Update 7.8.19
According to Money Marketing, Blackmore has now made the late interest payment, describing the delay as a “clerical error” with their bulk payment system.
This has nothing to do with Surge. They were just taking instructions. Like they did for lc&f. Like they no doubt are for capital bridge. It’s definitely not Paul Careless’s fault, that he was a director of rpdigital who advertised these products, no suree. And its definitely not his fault that his company service box, is being sued by domestic and general…hell, he has nothing to do with the running of that company. Its most certainly not his fault that his previous company ‘aska professional’ dragged many users into unwittingly signing up into an mlm scheme and causing them months of misery. And dont go blaming him for a court case that was thrown out due to jurisdiction issues about his involvement with a company called moneyexpert. This would all be just plain wrong , and unfair. The man is innocent. He was in the armed forces and the police for a few years, so he must be. And, he has not been found guilty of anything, ever. So leave him and Surge alone.
Surprise, surprise. The gruesome twosome that own Blackmore Bonds and before that Blackmore Global, an unregulated offshore collective, have a history of having their fingers in unsavoury pies. It’s not like there hasn’t been a ton of bad press over a number of years regarding the activities of these two.
Phillip Nunn & Patrick McCreesh are on record for earning circa £1m from TransEuro Worldwide Holdings, providing 100-200 leads per month, between 2012 and 2014 as part of the Capita Oak and Henley pension scams, promoting storage pods – yep, the same storage pods extensively reported on this site.
Following that venture, the gruesome twosome started their own offshore unregulated fund – mentioned above – and reported by the BBC You & Yours programme and also BBC News website, in January 2018 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42776709
Then they started Blackmore Bonds. Unregulated mini bonds became the new black for scams.
The activities of the gruesome twosome and Blackmore have also been extensively documented by https://pension-life.com/
The auditors of last year’s accounts stated that Blackmore Bond required new subscriptions of £1.5m per month to meet its commitments and questioned the company’s viability as an ongoing concern – didn’t anyone read it? Many people commented that was the typical business model of Ponzi schemes.
This is the beginning of the end. If you have trusted tweedledumb & tweedledumber with your life savings, then brace yourself. The money has gone and the impotent FCA and Action Fraud will do didly squat to help you get it back. It’s gone.
One thing has surprised me. Kenneth West, listed as a Director of Blackmore appointed Nov 2017, was also a Director of Cognisco Ltd – https://cognisco.com/about-us – between 2000 & 2009 https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/IopWaTw0DUxKWgSo1fCE84o3Pg4/appointments I worked for this company, based in Cranfield when it was still a fairly young startup, in 2004. A respectable, hard working IT company. How on earth did he get mixed up with the gruesome twosome? A small world!
Having worked tirelessly ( to no avail) at the time to try and get the adverts for both LCF and Blackmore looked into, it doesn’t surprise me that people are concerned.Of course they may pull through this and everything in the garden will be rosy once again.
As for just taking instructions, well we can all do that. We don’t have to follow them if they are “questionable” though do we? How much?……oh go on then
Amazing.
Here in the UK, the ONLY thing stopping thieves from stealing vast sums from the public is their own conscience. With no conscience, no stops on theft.
It’s perfectly legal to set up a business, invite investment, pretend to try and make business work, siphon off millions, go bust, and retire in Barbados.
Thanks FCA
@Roderick – spot on! Financial scams have proved to be low risk, low effort ventures providing huge gains for the scammers and the authorities do not stop them.
I invested in Peel Gardens Edenfield a property investment through Harewood Associates. When My capital was not paid back after 1 year. I was worried. I contacted Peter Kiely. Nothing. Reported to FCA, FSCS, Financial Ombudsman, Action Fraud, Begbies Traynor. No one did anything. Now I’m worried about my investment with Blackmore Bonds. When will this deceit stop. When will the legal system take control of the market and stop these thieves from robbing us. When will someone take responsibility.
I had an email from Patrick MCreesh saying that my quarterly interest from my Isa would be paid by close of business today. He said the provider had solved all of their issues and promised this would be done. We’ll. I still have not recieved my interest payment and its 4.00pm. I have just phoned but their account managers are not taking calls. Typical. Is this the beginning of the end I wonder????