Symtomax to sue Bond Review over third party comments

April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 3 Comments

Last October I reviewed bonds offered by Symtomax, an unregulated cannabis investment scheme, which paid returns of 30% over two years.

Last month Symtomax's lawyers, Brett Wilson LLP, contacted me to complain about pretty much all the comments left under the article, as well as some minor discrepancies in the article itself. (The two discrepancies consisted of describing Symtomax's director as a current rather than former regulatory official, and misattributing a Symtomax competitor's market capacity to Symtomax itself, an error which came from one of Symtomax's introducers and was reprinted in the review.)

Dolphin Trust fallout continues to spread; Korean bank CEO steps down

April 2, 2020March 28, 2020 ~ Brev ~ Leave a comment

The CEO of the brokerage arm of Shinhan Financial Group, one of South Korea's largest banks, has stepped down in an ongoing scandal partly involving the funnelling of investors' money into Dolphin Trust (aka German Property Group).

Shinhan funnelled $306 million into Dolphin Trust via derivatives, according to The Korea Herald.

Breaking: West Ham unregulated investment partner Basset & Gold goes into administration

April 1, 2020April 1, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 1 Comment

Basset & Gold, which offered unregulated bonds, "pensioner bonds" and 30-day "cash bond" notice accounts, announced today that it has gone into administration.

[Hat tip to reader John Doe for spotting the announcement.]

As at its last accounts for September 2018, the company had raised £30 million from investors.

Asset Life plc update: unjustified payments made to connected parties

March 3, 2020March 2, 2020 ~ Brev ~ 7 Comments

The administrators of collapsed minibond firm Asset Life plc released their latest quarterly update in February.

Asset Life plc raised £9 million from investors from 2014 onwards. It ran out of money and stopped paying investors in November 2018, and collapsed into administration shortly after.

Its Chairman, Martin Binks, was briefly a director of London Capital and Finance from October 2015 to August 2016. Binks is also a director of Anglo Wealth, a firm described as an "elegantly packaged scam" by a Crown Court judge. Binks has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to his work at LCF or Anglo Wealth.

At the time of its collapse Asset Life plc held two investments, a Kyrgyzstani gold exploration company and an Armenian iron ore extraction company. The administrators have not been able to find buyers for either investment and the only realistic prospect of selling the shares is to the other shareholders or connected parties.

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.

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...