Seeking investors for biggest struck off over £6m Scots deal
Was banned by financial watchdog after probe into sale of overvalued land
registered address at Company House is 69 Brunswick Street, Edinburgh, a building associated with more than 200 companies. Some firms registered at the address and another next door have been linked to international scandals involving tax avoidance andmoney laundering.
The Kroll Report into international fraud linked some firms registered at 69 and 71 to money stolen from a Moldovan bank and, two years ago, we revealed how firms registered at No 71 have been linked to money laundering by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Ms Compson was also previously a director of investment firm Sungold Capital Limited, whose address in
Edinburgh’s Duke Street is home to 96 companies. That address has also been used as the registered address for shell companies said to be involved in money laundering. However, there is nothing to suggest Ms Compson’s firms are involved in any financial irregularity and she says the registration of her companies was routine and handled by a third party.
Symtomax is seeking investors with a website, featuring photographs of lab- coated technicians working with cannabis plants and oils, staff biographies and drone footage of its planned 104- hectare site. The firm claims: “We are dedicated to the production, research, cultivation, processing and distribution of medicinal cannabis oil to pharmaceutical companies worldwide.”
A section called “Me e t the Team” includes Ms Compson, and says: “Minette is a powerful business driver whose entrepreneurial instincts and clarity of vision have carried multiple companies through rapid and continuous growth with over a decade of experience in the international financial markets.”
Symtomax says it has hired Eurico Castro Alves, former chairman of Portuguese regulatory body Infarmed, which licenses medicinal cannabis production. Another director listed on its website is David Mace, chairman of the Loudoun Castle Project that had aimed to turn the derelict Ayrshire theme park into a £450m holiday resort, but the plan was rejected by the Scottish Government a year ago. However, Symtomax’s promised return for investors is questioned by investment advice website Bond Review, which highlights a claim the firm will be able to produce medical cannabis crops worth $9.28bn (£7bn).
Bond Review said: “Claiming to be able to produce $9.28bn worth of cannabis is a big claim for a start-up company whose website was nothing but a placeholder as recently as August 2018. Any investment offering returns up to 18% in a year is extremely high risk.”
Money expert Fergus Muirhead said: “When thinking of investing, people should first consider how easy their money would be to access if they wanted it back from the company at any time. It would be wise to check if the investment is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority because if it isn’t there could be no protection if the investment went wrong.
“The Symtomax offering is for 30% returns in two years while the major banks and building societies are offering around 0.5% on your money, so there will clearly be an increased risk with an investment such as this.
Ms Compson told The Post her
‘ A lot of things written about me are codswallop. have only had one failure and learned my lesson
business ban in Gibraltar was up in April. “I made some mistakes and I paid for that,” she said. “It is five years since that judgment was made and now I am being reinstated.”
Of the Advalorem land deal in Kirkintilloch, she said: “I have never met Greg King, or would I want to. I have never had any dealings with him and the land thing in Glasgow had nothing to do with me. There were a lot of directors involved in that company who are regulated in Gibraltar and I would have no idea what everyone else was doing.”
She also said she had only been a director of Privilege Wealth for a short time in 2015 and had no knowledge of what happened at the firm after that. “I was at Privilege for just three or four weeks and the reason I left was that I didn’t like some of the people involved.”
She said she had only registered her new company at Brunswick Street because a third party had organised it. “There is nothing untoward about the address,” she said.
“A lot of the things that have been written about me are just codswallop. It is laughable. I have only had one failure and I have learned my lesson from that.”
“Symtomax is an exciting new business that I have been working on for more than three years and I have put a lot of my own money into it. The reason we have now been asking for investment is that the project has to be done in stages and the only way to keep going forward is to raise money.”