Tube boob: Transport for London plasters Underground with ads for Chinese crypto investment

February 13, 2020February 10, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 6 Comments

Last week the Daily Mail reported on a company called "Zeux" which had taken out ads on London Underground trains for a cryptocurrency investment.

If you read Zeux's adverts, you could be forgiven for thinking that the London Capital Finance collapse never happened. Zeux misleadingly compared its capital-at-risk investment with FSCS-backed deposits, and portrayed it as an easy-access savings account.

Losing interest in your bank? Earn 5% interest with Zeux Best part? You can take your money out at any time.

Refundable – unregulated life insurance with “unique” premium refund?

February 11, 2020January 30, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 2 Comments

Refundable Limited offers two life insurance products:

£3,000 Accidental Death for a 10 year term for £25 per month
£10,000 Employed Life for a 10 year term for £25 per month

The premiums and sum assured are fixed. The Employed Life policy has more restrictive eligibility criteria, hence the higher sum assured and not being restricted to accidental deaths only. The Accidental Death policy is open to anyone aged over 18.

Refundable promises to refund the entire £3,000 total premiums paid at the end of the 10 year term, which it describes as "unique".

The company is currently promoted via unsolicited emails (i.e. spam) and via an affiliate programme which promises to pay "£69 and £115 commission on all sales you generate each month" for websites which link to Refundable.

Dolphin Trust to make exit offer to investors; warns of potential for total losses

February 6, 2020February 6, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 2 Comments

Troubled German property scheme Dolphin Trust (now known as German Property Group) has frozen payments to investors in Ireland and told them it hopes to recover their money after receiving a buyout approach for their property assets.

According to The Times, an introducer has told investors that they risk losing everything if they enforce their loans to Dolphin Trust.

Dolphin Trust has been offering its loans to investors since at least 2013, when it was offering 12% per year for a 5 yar term. An investor told the BBC in 2018 that it successfully returned their money.

How Dolphin Trust went so quickly from paying out 12% per year (and 20% commission) to introducers telling investors that there is not even enough money to pay administrators is not clear. Dolphin is already paying restructuring specialists CFE to manage its cashflow problems.

Carlauren administrator publishes report; investor money diverted to private jet and luxury yachts

February 5, 2020February 5, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 4 Comments

The administrators of Carlauren Group have released their initial report into a total of 25 Carlauren companies.

Carlauren Group was an unauthorised investment scheme which solicited investment in care homes for returns of 10% per year. It slowly and painfully collapsed in 2019, leaving a trail of building sites and traumatised vulnerable OAPs as it did so, after becoming unable to pay its liabilities.

Investors' money was in theory to be used to do up stately buildings and convert them into care homes. The administrators lay bare the reality: Continue reading...

We review London European Securities’ unregulated bonds paying 5.5% per year

February 4, 2020February 4, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 2 Comments

London European Securities claims to offer "secure and protected" unregulated bonds paying 5.5% interest on Sterling investments for 12 months.

The company also offers investments in Euros and dollars, and over 6, 12 or "12+12" month terms. Rates are only disclosed when the investor provides their contact details, although in an August Facebook post, the company says "up to 4.9%" on Euro investments.

London European Securities is regulated as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager in the UK, which does not amount to full FCA authorisation, with no entry on the FCA register. As such it is restricted on the extent to which it can market its services.

That didn't stop the company entering a polo team in the Sandbanks beach polo tournament emblazoned with the number "5.6" on their shirts to advertise its bonds in July 2019.

Continue reading for a review of London European Securities' bonds.

Cauta Capital publishes 2019 accounts, £8.7 million now raised

January 30, 2020January 21, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 2 Comments

Cauta Capital, whose bonds paying 7-9% per year were reviewed here in January 2018, has published its accounts for the year ending in April 2019.

As in last year the accounts were unaudited and limited information is available, due to Cauta making use of small company exemptions. Creditors were reported to have increased from £6.8 million to £8.7 million.

<a href="https://bondreview.co.uk/2020/01/30/cauta-capital-publishes-2019-accounts-8-7-million-now-raised">Continue reading...

Alert: Fake Bond Review Facebook pages

January 29, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 10 Comments

I have been made aware of two Facebook pages that pretend to be me; a personal profile at bond.review.1 and a group set up by the same account at group no. 722140201642740 (no direct links to avoid boosting them on Google). The account is not run by me, and has used my logo and reposted Bond Review articles without permission, even after being asked to stop. The account has been reported to Facebook.

Bond Review currently has two active channels: this website (and its email / RSS newsletter), and my Twitter profile @BondReview.

There are three ways to initiate contact with me: the Contact link above, the Twitter profile and via the comments on this website.

Anything else should be assumed to be unauthorised and nothing to do with me.

I previously used a Facebook profile to post in a few groups as an individual but have not used this in some time.