London Capital and Finance

Delburn

The administrators have published their six month report:

https://smithandwilliamson.com/media/5578/joint-administrators-progress-report-to-29-july-2019.pdf

Expected recovery as low as 25%. This is from IOG. Everything else very uncertain.

Reaper

From a skim read...

I see the directors continue to obstruct the administrators. There is no Statement of Affairs from the directors because...

Mr Thomson claims through his various solicitors to be too unwell to attend on the administrators. This has been the position since late February 2019. The other directors of the Company do not have sufficient knowledge of the Company’s affairs.

How very convenient.

And it's not just the directors. Solicitors Buss Merton seem to be closely involved (previous post) particularly in relation to the high questionable Cape Verde. Are they assisting? No...

At the outset of the administration Alex Lee (of Buss Murton) informed us that he was briefed to resolve issues regarding the Cape Verde investment but Mr Lee has subsequently declined to voluntarily assist the joint administrators enquiries.

The same again for most of the companies the money got lent to. For example

It is very surprising to the joint administrators that the Prime group is so extraordinarily reluctant to engage and consider this to be either suspicious or naive.

Remember those dodgy missing horses?

To date, Mr Cubitt has not attended voluntarily for interview. We have also yet to receive satisfactory answers to the queries that we have raised.

How about the money that inexplicably ended up in the pockets of the 4 directors? Previously 2 said they would pay it back and 2 had not replied.
Mr Hume-Kendall - "little progress has been achieved in their dealings with him"
Mr Thompson - denied he ever agreed to pay anything back.
Spencer Golding and Elten Barker - no intention of paying it back because the investors will somehow magically get all their money back.

Remember at the beginning how optimistic the administrators were and how we said they were in for a surprise? Well the rose tinted spectacles are now off...

It is unfortunate that the administrators are being required to deal with a concerted and very likely coordinated exercise on the part of a number of individuals aimed at frustrating the joint administrators enquiries, for their own reasons. This approach causes delay and additional expense to the joint administrators’ objectives, to the prejudice of Bondholders and so is most unwelcome.

They say this will take years to resolve which sounds very likely. Which means the administrators fees will eat into what little money is left.

It sounds like legal proceedings are planned but of course all the obstruction makes it hard to gather evidence. Fingers crossed justice is eventually done.

masonic

None of this should come as any surprise to anyone but the administrators, who have gone in half-cocked and completely misrepresented the situation in their initial communications to the media and bondholders.

londoninvestor

Another quote from the administrators' report that caught my eye:

London Power & Technology Limited

We previously reported that this lending of £16.6m appeared to be in respect of a redemption of preference shares in London Power Corporation. Our investigations to date suggest that this transaction did not take place and furthermore, there does not appear to be any transaction to support lending of £16.6m.

The joint administrators of LOG continue to investigate the application of the unaccounted for £16.6m and will report their findings in due course

So this appears to be not just an unwise loan, or a loan to a crony's company - it appears to have gone without trace.

bail-in

Another Andy Thomson?

http://rodthomasinvestment.co.uk/

https://avantiswealth.com/

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08292970/officers

https://www.linkedin.com/in/avantiswealth?originalSubdomain=uk

https://ideamensch.com/rod-thomas/ Rod Thomas - Founder of Avantis Wealth Ltd

http://www.papworths.com/memphis.html

https://www.propertytribes.com/another-property-scammer-now-behind-bars-t-127631378.html

https://www.propertytribes.com/avantis-wealth-t-127630692.html

---

Useful investment websites to help investors avoid scams and duff investment schemes:

https://www.propertytribes.com/how-to-use-companies-house-for-due-diligence-t-127629548.html

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/diyinvesting/article-5578837/Tread-carefully-Innovative-Finance-Isa-investing-Wild-West.html

bail-in

Scandal of Scammers on Google article in today's Times, Sat 9 November 2019. Mentions London Capital and Finance in this respect. A pointing towards Google here to take on more responsibility but how could it vet the advertisers to avoid scams and should Google be responsible? Any suggestions. I have not read the full article as I am not a subscriber. Anyone have a link to the full article?

Reaper

bail-in wrote: »

Another Andy Thomson?

I'm not quite sure what you are saying with all the links. If it's Avantis Wealth the name has come up a couple of times in the past. How about this for a heavily censored thread!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5018651/any-thoughts-on-this-outfit

IanSt

bail-in wrote: »

Scandal of Scammers on Google article in today's Times, Sat 9 November 2019. Mentions London Capital and Finance in this respect. A pointing towards Google here to take on more responsibility but how could it vet the advertisers to avoid scams and should Google be responsible? Any suggestions. I have not read the full article as I am not a subscriber. Anyone have a link to the full article?

I've not read it, but I expect they'll be bashing them as I think there's more chance of them suddenly be complementary to Jeremy Corbyn then there is of them being complementary to what I'm sure they see as being their commercial archenemy.

Should there ever come the day where google becomes liable for responsibility for the adverts on it, then expect google to shut themselves down in that country.

ColdIron

About time

• Minibond ads banned in shake-up of HNW marketing rules
• Minibonds will no longer be allowed to be marketed to retail buyers, in a shake-up of promotion rules.

https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/minibond-ads-banned-in-shake-up-of-hnw-marketing-rules/a1298417

Reaper

ColdIron wrote: »

• Minibond ads banned in shake-up of HNW marketing rules
• Minibonds will no longer be allowed to be marketed to retail buyers, in a shake-up of promotion rules.

https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/minibond-ads-banned-in-shake-up-of-hnw-marketing-rules/a1298417

I think that is worthy of a thread of its own. It's good news BUT
* Doesn't take effect until next year
* I don't think it properly tackles "introducers"

At the moment introducers advertise great rates on the web often ignoring all the existing rules. They pass on contacts to the mini-bond companies for huge commissions.

The introducers say they don't offer any investments themselves so say they are not liable when it all goes wrong. They also frequently popup and vanish leaving no trace. Any effort to close them down would be like wack-a-mole and it's all too easy for them to set up abroad out of reach. So I fully expect the new rules to have no effect on them.

Meanwhile the company selling mini-bonds says it didn't advertise anything so it is in the clear.

We will see how it turns out but I'm not optimistic.