Bentley Global has filed accounts for August 2019, 5 months overdue (even after allowing for the Covid 3 month extension). In doing so it has earned a reprieve from a strike-off action issued by Companies House in November and suspended the following month.
Bentley Global’s August 2018 accounts showed that it had raised £4.8 million in its bonds paying 12 – 20% per year. That figure swelled to £8.6 million by August 2019.
The accounts are unaudited and did not include a profit and loss account, despite CEO and former chartered accountant Alan Bentley claiming
We’re not going to hide – every month we’re going to publish our figures fully audited so our clients can see exactly what we’re earning
What can be gleaned from the limited information released by Bentley Global is:
- Despite the amount owed to investors increasing by £3.8 million, current assets increased by only £1.2 million.
- While the company did not file a profit and loss account, the movement in the “profit and loss account” on the balance sheet shows a loss of £5.3 million. Around £2.8 million of that represents the depreciation in value of the magic algorithm that Bentley Global uses to generate its returns from sports betting. This algorithm was modestly valued at £27 million in 2017 despite apparently being capable of generating returns of up to 20%pa from betting on football.
- £540,000 has been invested in betting pools – on a book cost basis (i.e. the amount put in the accounts). How much is in the accounts now is not stated, despite the aforementioned commitment to “publish our figures fully audited”. Bentley Global claims, as it did last year, that “the undue time and cost of valuing the asset by the director does not warrant establishing a true and fair value”.
- Another £4 million is booked in accruals and deferred income and other debtors.
Seems to me that after taking 17 months to file the accounts, it wouldn’t have been that hard for Bentley Global to obtain values as at August for what was in its betting pools, perhaps while football was suspended due to the pandemic.
The directors state that there are no material uncertainties over whether the company can continue as a going concern.
Bentley Global allegedly stopped paying interest on its bonds last year, citing the pandemic. Whether it has been able to catch up now that football is back on again (and it is worth noting that most of the matches that Bentley Global wasn’t able to bet on during Lockdown 1 did eventually happen) is unclear.
The big test for Bentley Global has arrived as the first capital repayments of its three-year bonds fell due in November 2020. [This sentence was originally written as if November 2020 was in the future – thanks Charlie for spotting.]
Please research properly!! The algorithm results are published DAILY!!! BTW, November 2020 has passed.
Where would that be? No sign of them that I can see on their website.
Also, fully audited figures were what was promised in that particular excerpt. I struggle to see how “daily” results can be fully audited.
And thanks for pointing out my mistake. I got it into my head it was the coming November rather than the one just passed. I’m going to blame the fact that it still feels too much like 2020.
Thanks for making us alerted Brev. It seems like Bentley and Co are hiding behind the bushes, several things could be happing:
A) they are avoiding tax
B) money is being laundered to the Far East
C) these daily audits could be fictitious returns from a clever software, what counts is if the we can match them up with the bank statements. Unfortunately that could only be done by an independent auditor which I am sure Bentley and co will not take on.
I wonder if Charlie is confused by the fund “LF Bentley Global Growth Fund” which is priced daily. AFAIK it has nothing to do with them.
The algorithm is applied to sports trading which is public on their Skin in the Game portal – all timestamped and verified. Currently running at 12% per month average over last 8 months.
Charlie who is it verified by?
If these returns were so good why not use a blue chip auditor like KPMG Or PWC to verify the books so that you could raise serious money?
There is a major conflict of interest with Bentley ‘self-auditing’ as it’s quite easy to fudge figures..
It’s funny how Bentley calls it ‘Skin in the game’ but yet has to raise a loan note from general investors.. some I bet invested as little as a few grand, why target vulnerable investors like this?
Also I am sure some of our experienced readers are familiar with the banned Israeli binary software platforms which also promised daily audited returns but little did investors know the ‘actual’ figures were different, which made the all activity a fraud as it was a fantasy play purely to make investors believe they were in profit.
Bentley Global has never proved their trading results on their millions and millions of pounds of consumer investment. Which reputable accountants or lawyers have ever signed off to say they’ve witnessed Bentley make millions of pounds from betting accounts (which is what he claims to have done for clients)? Has any legitimate client sat with Bentley and seen an account screen showing millions of pounds of profit? No, because he is lying about his results.
Saying the track record is on his Skin in the Game website also does not prove that he has traded and made millions of pounds of profit with investor money.
Have Bluewater Capital audited the results? Not just been told by Alan Bentley that he made a profit. Have they physically seen a betting account with millions of pounds of profit, or bank statements showing this consistent profit from betting accounts? Obviously not.
Simply paying clients for a few years doesn’t prove anything. It could clearly be a Ponzi scheme. And, unsurprisingly, he stopped paying investors last year with the convenient excuse of Covid19.
It also seems as though he has dumped Bentley Global and set up Bentley Intelligence to raise more cash from consumers.
I have gone to the police now, the FCA and newspapers. I hope the people in Bentley’s IM are ready to answer questions. Are the director of football, Peter Reid, and advisor, Angus Loughran ready to answer questions to the police about their strategy and results? People invested their money because they believed in these football celebrities and they’ve been let down by them. People invested because they believed the FCA authorised security trustee, Bluewater Capital, was fully auditing results and acting in the bondholders interests. The trustee has failed in their duty and no doubt been happy to take money in fees but done nothing to help the people they are supposed to protect.
To investors, PLEASE DON’T LISTEN TO HIS LIES. HE HAS STOPPED PAYING INVESTORS SO GO TO ACTION FRAUD, THE POLICE AND THE FCA. The more investors who do this, the more likely they are to take action and look into him. And for investors who still believe him, if Bentley is telling the truth, then he will be able to show the police all these millions of pounds of profit so he shoudn’t care.
If Alan Bentley reads this, he could easily put an end to the mystery of his betting performance and publish Profit and Loss records from the betting, crossing out any sensitive information. Will he do it, knowing that such a falsified document is then unescapable evidence of fraud??
1. More on Bentley Global (UK) Ltd and linked company Bentley Intelligence Ltd.
2. Please see “Is Bentley Global (UK) Ltd on the brink of going into administration?”: https://dralexmay.wordpress.com/2021/02/22/is-bentley-global-uk-ltd-on-the-brink-of-going-into-administration/
Dr May, I don’t know if you are a client of Bentley Global, but I have contacted Tony Hetherington at the Mail on Sunday and forwarded on some findings and information. He actually seems to be one of the few people who care about consumers being scammed, and cares more than the Police and FCA. I would urge any other investors who have not been paid to contact him too. They must get many emails so it’s important that as many investors as possible contact him and then he can understand the scale of this scam. [email protected] .
Thanks for all the information guys.
There is something fishy going on, first they said one of the shareholders stole money, next they change business names, they also tried to break the law by trying to strike off Bentley Global without posting returns, then they publish esoteric financial results which were extremely overdue, now they are claiming they ‘self audit’ everyday, what a load of you know what….
They think us investors were born yesterday…
We need a forensic fraud team to look at their ‘real’ books not their fantasy betting trades…
I hope Bentley & Co get a taste of their own medicine soon, as they clearly think they are above the law!!!
Someone seems to regret NOT getting involved with the Bentley Boys!! I invested a lot of money into their scheme and, yes, payouts have stopped but I get a weekly update and my money is more than safe. I am looking forward to the get together in summer and you lot of dawdling inbreds will be absolutely seething when you realises what you’ve missed. Yes, I am a high wealth investor and have now become a very close ally to AB and his team.
I do not think there is anybody who would regret not getting involved with Mr Bentley.
Paul, if you are a genuine client then you are being scammed. If you are that close to the ‘Bentley Boys,’ then they would surely be happy to meet you, and show you in person the trading accounts and bank accounts. They would be eager to demonstrate to everybody that all the client money is safe and that they have made millions of pounds in their trading. They obviously have not done this and your money is not safe. There is no money left and that is why they cannot pay anyone.
Paul N is probably a fake client, no one in their right mind would recommend Bentley after losing out on recent payments.
It’s obviously wrong to make accusations without evidence, but all roads should lead into a full forensic into Bentley’s affairs of both companies, especially the one which had a criminal shareholder who apparently stole company money. All results they publish should be audited against the Bentley bank account to see if they are ‘really’ telling the truth.
As Jon says if they were really good results they would happily be audited by a top tier auditors to attract bigger funds, so something smells like a ‘rat’ there.
I would highly encourage all investors to contact [email protected] – as he is easily spots the BS.
Also worth setting up a private Facebook group for Bentley Investors, but do VET every member who joins to prevent Bentley from eavesdropping.
T W.
1. Unauthorised introducer promotes Bentley Intelligence Ltd and its bond.
2. Please see “Bentley Intelligence Ltd and the disappearing security trustee”: https://dralexmay.wordpress.com/2021/03/03/bentley-intelligence-ltd-and-the-disappearing-security-trustee/
Interesting but in the end it matters little. I can’t think of a single time the security trustee has done anything worthwhile when these companies go belly up. Likewise any supposed insurance.
Novanica Asset Trustees Limited Is owned by Graham Arnott – same chap who helped with the collapse Marcelo Development, Tyram Lakes, Essex & London and many fraudulent bonds. He ran Jade State Wealth and Acccount worx group which have also collapsed. This is incredibly alarming that he is the trustee of the Bentley Intelligence bond, does not take high IQ to work out where Bentley will end up too?
Don’t say we did not WARN you…
1. Why isn’t the FCA acting on Bentley Global (UK) Ltd, Bentley Intelligence Ltd and Blue Water Capital Ltd?
2. Please see “FCA inaction on Bentley Global”: https://dralexmay.wordpress.com/2021/03/09/fca-inaction-on-bentley-global/
You’d think that these people who continue to post antagonsitic, mendacious and defammatory posts, often under aliases, would look at the recent collapse of the likes of Football Index and Footstock and realise that I was correct to suspend trading in these supremely difficult conditions. I fully understand that many are struggling in this pandemic, but it would have been entirely wrong for me to continue trading in the face of an extremely volatile environment, even though if I had, noone could have suggested that I wasn’t adhering to the terms of the bond. If I’d then lost every penny, frankly these guys wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on. At least I know that I have the overwhelming majority of clients 100% behind me.
Mr Bentley, the issue is not the suspension of trading. The issue is that you have never provided audited track records of your results ever since you raised millions of pounds from consumers. I have a downloaded video off Youtube, where you talk with your football director, Peter Reid with a notice that it has been approved by Bluewater Capital. You clearly say that there will be regular audited results.
You have simply never provided these, long before you ‘stopped trading’ due to Covid. There is no evidence that you ever made a profit betting for your clients. You have also provided no information to clients about where are all these millions of pounds of client money. If you had been making profits prior to Covid, then the millions of pounds from consumers would still be there. However, Bentley Global was in talks to go into liquidation, which indicates that it has all gone. Where did it go?
Now you are willing to enter into a dialogue online, can you please confirm that all the client funds are still there, that you were trading on their behalf and had made significant profits prior to Covid? Does this mean that all of the investors’ funds could be repaid if they were all to redeem now? These are not unfair or unreasonable questions.
If you can answer that and hopefully provide some evidence, then I will happily withdraw my complaints to the Police and FCA.
I would urge everyone and I mean everyone who has invested with Alan Ronald Bentley to come forward with any information they have on him. He has hidden more than Pounds 10,000,000 of investors’ money and refuses to admit what he has done!!! There are heartbreaking stories and this man has destroyed the lives of so many people…Please stop him….He called us “idiots” and “greedy” and there are stories floating around about the whereabouts of the money…Don’t be silent…