WATCHDOG GAVE ITS BLESSING TO A LOAD OF CONS

A year ago this week I exposed Marvell Enterprises Limited, which used a string of deceptive tactics to persuade victims that it was a successful investment business.

It fabricated figures in the accounts filed to Companies House to show assets of £21million, used pictures of unconnected people on its “meet the team” web page, and lied about being “one of the most progressive and reputable property development and investment companies in the UK.”

Perhaps most helpful to the conmen was the fact that Marvell was given authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority, which helped it rip off investors for what the watchdog calls “substantial” sums.

Alongside the investment scam it advertising non-existent jobs so that it could fleece the Government’s Kickstart Scheme, which paid firms £1,500 for taking on young unemployed jobseekers.

Now Marvell has been shut down in the High Court along with seven linked companies that were also on the FCA register: Cavendish Incorporated, Cottesmore Associates, Grosvenor Associates, Renaissance Advisory, Falcon Financial Solutions, Thestral Financial Services and Semantic Business Services.

“We took action to prevent these firms from causing further harm to consumers and so that if the firms hold any assets they can be recovered for the benefit of anyone owed money by the firms,” said the FCA.

Just a shame they ever allowed them on the FCA register in the first place.