The administrators of Harewood Associates have released their latest report.
£2.8 million owed by another Kiely-owned company, Lansdown Investment Management, has now been fully repaid.
The administrators are however still expecting only 7p in the pound to be paid to Harewood Associate’s £32 million worth of unsecured creditors.
In further bad news for Harewood investors, those who invested in Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) have been told that they will not be considered creditors of the company. While the whole point of setting up an SPV is usually to keep its debts separate from the main company, Harewood investors had previously been given hope of being included in the main administration (if being added to an administration which projects 7p in the pound can be viewed as such a thing). This suggests some sort of corporate guarantee.
The idea was sufficiently strong for the administrators to hire a barrister to look into it, however having done so, they have concluded that the SPV creditors are not creditors of Harewood Associates itself.
FCA-kitemarked offshoot closes its doors via voluntary strikeoff
Harewood owners David and Peter Kiely owned another property firm, Monmouth Regent plc.
In an echo of the Harewood scheme, Monmouth Regent plc was previously offering bonds paying 8% per year on its website.
We are delighted to be able to invite you to participate in Monmouth Regent PLC’s inaugural offers for subscription of 8 percent five-year fixed rate secured loan notes.
Monmouth Regent plc website as at May 2020
In July 2020 Monmouth Regent plc was voluntarily struck off the register, suggesting that its fundraising never actually took place (or you would expect creditors to object). Its website monmouthregent.co.uk has also disappeared.
Harewood Associates illegally advertised its bonds directly to the public and claimed that its loan note offering was exempt from UK securities law because Harewood was a property company. As I’ve pointed out before, this is like me soliciting investment from the public in a fast food business and claiming securities law doesn’t apply to me because I’m regulated by the Food Standards Agency.
In contrast, Monmouth Regent plc’s website stated that its offering was approved by an FCA-regulated company, Monmouth Regent Capital Limited, as an appointed representative of Blackheath Capital Management.
The trouble with this claim is that Monmouth Regent Capital only held its appointed rep status from May 2015 to August 2016.
Given that Monmouth Regent plc apparently came and went without taking in any money, or doing anything whatsoever (it filed accounts as a dormant company until its directors struck it off the register) there’s nothing too untoward about it having out-of-date information on a moribund website. However, archive.org shows that Monmouth Regent’s website changed significantly at some point between January 2019 and May 2020, while leaving the false claim to have FCA-authorised sign-off for its ads.
The shuttering of Monmouth Regent leaves one enduring mystery: why Kiely 1 and Kiely 2 went to the bother of (very briefly) securing FCA authorisation via Blackheath in order to promote their new 5 year bonds, when in their world, property companies are exempt from UK securities legislation.
Despite promoting its investments directly to the public from at least 2013 until its collapse, resulting in at least £32m of investor losses, no enforcement action has been taken against Harewood that is in the public domain.
The Kiely brothers are VERY well known for this sort of behaviour over many,many years, they are still living in the Bolton area, in very lavish properties it has to be said.
Their are a very large number of “new” companies that have been set up very recently, all property related, and mainly fronted by family members that haven’t yet made it to the media and other various associated hangers on that have known them for years!!!…
They will be up to their old tricks again very,very soon and anyone who has any dealings with them either by buying one of their sub standards builds or as an investor in one of their MANY schemes, ALL of which have FAILED dramatically previously.
Years ago it was Paul Kiely with Provence in Bolton, sale and leaseback of licensed premises, BIG,BIG scam, went under as per usual. Paul appears not to have been involved in anything,at least on paper, for a number of years now.
Then came along Brendan KIely who while not Bolton based also many failed schemes to his name.
AT the moment it is Peter & David Kiely who have made the news with the collapse of Harewood associates, BUT their are many other companies connected and still actively trading that are DIRECTLY linked to Peter Kiely and David Kiely, which are simply FRONTED by other associates and unknown to the media family members.
Another one to watch out for is Harrison Kiely, who has simply followed in his dad,Brendan;s steps, multiple companies, multiple dodgy dealings, multiple liquidations.
Basically that is their business model and they have been at it for years and years and years.
Quite simply do indepth reserach and due dilligence on anything even remotely related to the Bolton/North West area as it is highly likely to be connected to these scammers, even if fronted by a stooge director!!!!!!.
That’s quite a family history these fat creeps have. Why don’t you show this history of criminal activity to the Serious Fraud Office?
Don’t forget the links to Simon Morris and David K Anderson. All very close. Hennesy jones and these guys traded a lot .
The whole Kiely family are notorious for this behaviour. No doubt they will be back at is shortlyz if they aren’t already. What sad indicator of our families regulatory system that they can get away with it time after time and openly flaunt the wealth they have accumulated as a result.
Somewhere along the line the Serious Fraud office/Police are failing investors who have been scammed by these jokers!
The Government are well aware of the fraud involved by the Kielys, which brought about the collapse of Harewood, and the huge losses sustained by its creditors, yet nothing happens to them. I contacted my MP 14 months ago, he wrote to the Treasury minister John Glen, his response couldn’t of been any more unhelpful. It’s quite clear that the authorities simply don’t care about retail in sectors losing, in many cases, their life savings by being defrauded by these Kiely scum!
At this point Begbies Traynor still haven’t stated this investment was illegal, a scam and signalled the police to start making arrest – Begbies are in on it protecting the Kielys and shafting the poor investors.
Defies belief that Begbies saught advice which stated that the SPV investors get shafted. The SOV was supposed to be overseen by the Solicitirs, who had a duty to ensure any moneys plus profits came back to the INVESTORS. Surely any money found via those solicitors, should, under their legal duty, not be grabbed by Begbies for any other prpose than to recompense those investors. Or are they in on this criminal scam as well. When will either charges be brought against Kiely’s or solicitors.