Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Banned director is nabbed by the FBI Assets frozen as serial scammer faces fraud cases in US
HABITUAL scam merchant Renwick Haddow might have gone too far – now the FBI is on his case after he was accused of ripping off investors with a global operation based in New York.
I first encountered Haddow in 2008 when he was banned from running UK companies for eight years after the collapse of his Branded Leisure plc, a health foods and beauty treatments venture that cost investors around £2million.
Next came a scheme that took almost £17million from its victims.
African Land promised “a tidy 15% profit a year” for people who invested in rice farmland in Sierra Leone.
But 50% of the money put into it disappeared into the pockets of marketing outfit Capital Alternatives, and more farmland was sold to investors than the company owned.
The Financial Conduct Authority alleged in the High Court that Haddow “had a leading role in the running of these companies”, despite being a banned director.
He did not give evidence, and the watchdog won its legal battle to prove that the investment schemes were unlawful.
Further hearings are due to take place this month, but I suspect what’s really on Haddow’s mind are the fraud charges he faces in the United States, which carry maximum 20-year jail sentences each.
The 48-year-old, who lived in London and Hong Kong before moving to New York, is alleged to have set up a business called Incrowd Equity that was meant to help investors spot promising start-ups in the UK and US.
Its website crowed: “Investing in early stage growth companies can be highly lucrative and exciting.”
Incrowd recommended Bitcoin Store Inc, which claimed to be an easy platform for trading the virtual currency.
It also pushed Bar Works Inc, which would supposedly make money by converting restaurants and bars into temporary office space, offering “real vibrancy to the flexible working scene”.
Bar Works proved a hit, raising almost £28million from investors around the world. They had no way of knowing that the advice from Incrowd was far from impartial because it was owned by Haddow, who used the alias Jonathan Black, and who also owned Bitcoin Store and Bar Works.
According to the court statement of FBI special agent Melissa Beresford, Haddow “misappropriated without permission funds purportedly invested in Bitcoin Store and Bar Works for his own use and the use of others”.
She reports how cold-calling sales reps, who were not required to have any financial qualifications, were witnessed “badgering, harassing and shouting at prospective investors”.
In an echo of the overselling involved in the African Land disaster, Bar Works is also accused of selling more leases for the work spaces than actually existed.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is acting in parallel with the FBI.
“Haddow created two trendy companies and misled investors into believing that highly qualified executives were leading them to quick profitability,” says Andrew Calamari, the director of its New York office.
“In reality, Haddow controlled the companies from behind the scenes and they were far from profitable.”
The assets of Haddow and his companies have been frozen while investigations continue.