Watchdog is failing us all
SCANDAL AS SCAMMERS GET OFFICIAL APPROVAL
SAVERS may have lost what the City watchdog warns is “a substantial” amount of money in investment company Marvell Enterprises Limited.
The firm was an authorised credit broker but the Financial Conduct Authority says it also pushed investments without authorisation.
“Its communications with consumers regarding investments contain numerous misleading statements which appear designed to give false comfort to investors about the level of protection their investments would receive,” says the regulator.
It pointed out that the way Marvell Enterprises operated bears “striking similarities” to Cavendish Incorporated Limited, which had its FCA authorisation axed in August, as did a third firm that was authorised to act on its behalf, Cottesmore Associates Limited.
So, why were these fly-by-night outfits given the regulator’s seal of approval in the first place?
The FCA admits it had tried contacting Marvell but its landline did not work and letters were returned unopened – which should have set alarm bells ringing long ago.
This mess spreads to a chain of other companies.
IDENTICAL
There’s Grosvenor Associates, whose website has identical artwork and wording to that used by Marvell, both companies declaring: “We aim to be one of the most progressive and reputable property development and investment companies in the UK.”
Marvell’s website has pictures of three supposed executives named as Jake Saunders, Martin Drake and Ian Glasscock, plus company secretary Rachel Wood.
But if you dig into the metadata of the pictures you find they have different names – Robin Lincoln, Yusuf Airede, Chasminder Bhavra and Jenette Newbold.
These are the names given on Companies House for the executives at Grosvenor Associates.
I wouldn’t bet on either version of these names being genuine.
One of the many questions I put to Grosvenor was if it could provide any proof that its named directors actually exist, but I got no answer. Nor would it comment on the apparent links to Marvell Enterprises or how its latest filed company accounts – unaudited, naturally – show shareholder funds of £21million when the previous year it had barely £29,000.
Nor did it explain why the accounts were signed by “director” Christina Adedeji when Companies House has no record of someone with this name being one of its directors.
And here’s the sucker punch: Grosvenor Associates is authorised by the FCA, just like Marvell Enterprises was until a few days ago.
Companies House documents name someone called Alan Goodban as a person who at one point had significant control at Grosvenor Associates, a name I know all too well.
He was a director of property investment scam Fabcourt Developments Limited, which I exposed in March.
LIE
This lot was promoted through online adverts promising “Invest safely in secured UK bonds”.
Posing as a potential investor, I was contacted by a sales rep flogging Fabcourt Developments loan notes that promised 8% returns.
The rep insisted: “We are one of the biggest property developers for boroughs and the Government.”
That was not the only lie, the accounts showing shareholder funds of more than £139m were a fiction.
I wrote at the time that I doubted that Alan Goodban even existed, judging by a LinkedIn profile stating that he left university in 1986, when he would have been just 15, and the 28-year career gap until he apparently started at Fabcourt in 2014.
At least the FCA did not accredit this lot, warning in March: “This firm is not authorised by us and is targeting people in the UK.”
Alan Goodban was a director of another supposed property investment company, Texmoore Limited, and this too was the subject of an FCA consumer warning.
You might have thought that this would spell the end of them, but no such luck.
Texmoore changed its name to Sampson Property Developments Limited and has filed what are manifestly false accounts, unaudited, as usual, the figures for 2020 simply being cut and pasted from 2019.
It has also been using the Department for Work and Pensions findajob website to recruit staff.
Almost identical job ads have been placed on the site by Fabcourt, which hasn’t even bothered to change its name.
Facebook has been helping scammers along by running adverts for an account promising “Invest safely in secured UK bonds”. This has linked to a range of websites including ukincomebonds.co, incomebonds.org and income-bonds.co, all promising returns of up to 7%.
Mark Taber, a bonds expert and campaigner against investment scams, repeatedly complains to the web companies hosting scam domains.
“Every time I get one of their domains blocked by the domain registrar they move the site and within hours a Facebook ad links to a new domain,” he said. When he complained to Facebook about the account that links to the domains he was told it doesn’t contravene its “community standards”.
I recently tested this Facebook account by inputting my contact details and was phoned back by someone claiming to work for fund manager Compass Private Investments SA.
He tried to persuade me to buy bonds paying a 7.8% return, assuring me my money would be safe because Compass Private Investments is authorised by Luxembourg watchdog the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier or CSSF.
‘‘ Facebook has been helping scammers along by running adverts
‘‘ Every time I get one of their domains blocked, they move the site
HIJACKED
But the people contacting me were crooks who had hijacked details of this genuine company and set up a fake site, cpi-sa.com, using its name.
A CSSF spokesman confirmed: “This website is fraudulent.”
Which prompts a mass of questions, including why did the City watchdog give authorisation to Marvell Enterprises, Cavendish Incorporated and Cottesmore Associates in the first place, and why does Grosvenor Associates still have it?
Why are Fabcourt and Texmoore not just still operating but actively recruiting staff through the Government’s job website?
Why does no one check that the names used by directors relate to real people or that filed accounts bear some semblance to reality?
I know Companies House will not have done so, it admits not having the power or capability to verify the accuracy of the information it is given.
The FCA told me: “We are changing our rules to make it easier for us to stop firms operating when they don’t meet our standards.”
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions, which runs the findajob site, said: “We are strengthening our verification process.”
Why does Facebook, or Meta as it now calls itself, continue plugging investment scams?
It sent me a statement saying: “While no enforcement is perfect, we continue to invest in new technologies and methods to protect our users from this kind of content.”
For the final madness, the FCA has just issued a consumer alert about regulated-fixed-income.co.uk.
This website has the same branding and contact details as the regulated Grosvenor Associates site.
So the crazy position now is that the watchdog has simultaneously granted authorisation to a company while warning you to avoid a website linked to that very company.