Advice Needed Chasing Fraudulent ‘Teak Plantation’ Companies

ScamSnooper

My father invested £82,025 in three teak plantations and one bamboo plantation in Costa Rica between 2012 and 2014. This is on top of about £2million that he has lost due to investing in other ‘cold callers’ who, as far as we can gather, are also fraudulent organisations but getting ANY form of help from Police, FCA, Action Fraud has proved to be hard work and fruitless. We have now decided to go down the path of ‘public humiliation’ by going public with this case.

The investments in this particular event were sold in the form of ‘sub-leases’ of the plantations for varying numbers of years with entitlement to the profits of the timber/bamboo harvested.

We received all the title paperwork for two of the teak plantations but have not received any paperwork for the third teak plantation or the bamboo plantation.  It is now over a year since my father signed a letter that we drafted setting out all the documentary information that we wanted, as well as the income from the “thinnings” carried out on one of the two plantations for which he does have the paperwork.  It is about eighteen months since my father and brother first started raising enquiries about the investments and asking for information.

Since January last year, my brother has chased every two/three months for the information and has been met with various excuses from Nick Durrant that the trustees who granted the sub-lease have poor record-keeping, that lockdown has prevented them accessing their records, problems getting documents stamped by the Costa Rica consulate etc etc.  We did receive some paperwork in November but it was only photocopies of the originals for the first two plantations that we already hold.  When my brother chased again in early December, he was told that we would receive the missing paperwork in early January: since which date, nothing further has materialised, despite further threats in October to report the matter to the regulatory authorities.

We despair of ever receiving the paperwork and now think we should be seeking the return of the monies paid for the third teak plantation and the bamboo plantation, which would represent a good result and result in some much needed additional liquidity.

My brothers proposal, is to write to Mr Durrant and to the trustees, pointing out that we are still awaiting this paperwork, which we now conclude does not exist; seeking the return of the monies paid for those two plantations within 28 days, failing which solicitors will be instructed over the recovery of these sums; and threatening also to report Mr Durrant, Living Investments and the trustees to the police and the FCA.

If this does not prompt production of the missing paperwork for the third teak plantation and the bamboo plantation or the return of the monies (£51,720), we do not know what will, short of the actual issue of legal proceedings which just feels like throwing good money after bad. Any thoughts or help would be very welcome.

Greenfingers37

Scam snooper - have you made any progress with Nick Durrant.  I have a friend who is having exactly the same problem with him.  He can't get any response from Nick at all.

Green_23

I was subject to similar dishonest behaviour. Advice to me is that the investment is fraudulent and to pursue. This may best be achieved as a class action? I am sure we are not alone here.

Hexane

Green_23 said:

Advice to me is that the investment is fraudulent and to pursue. 

My advice is that a fraudulent investment is one that you should not pursue.

Green_23 said:

This may best be achieved as a class action? I am sure we are not alone here.

Posting on a public forum about it would be a good way to come into contact with people seeking to perpetrate fraud recovery scams or people vulnerable to such scams.

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/fraud-recovery-fraud

These "plantation" scams don't seem to be on topic in a "green and ethical money saving" forum. However, what made you decide to put large amounts of money that you couldn't afford to lose into such a scheme to begin with? Did the claimed returns seem too good to be true?

Reed_Richards

Hexane said:

These "plantation" scams don't seem to be on topic in a "green and ethical money saving" forum. 

Well we have a topic https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6127314/green-ethical-investment-news-and-suggestions#latest here.  A plantation might seem to be a green investment; trouble arises when it turns out to be a scam.   

Green_23

Thank you for the feedback and highlighting the risks. The money invested resulted from green credentials and the returns were not to good to be true and were at similar or slightly lower than investments friends made, several years were spent to identify an ethical investment (not long enough or with enough care for sure). Trust may have been poorly placed but is a positive attribute. Our family business has always been conducted at a handshake and honouring our word - small business granted. Like the first post the third choose to post in public as the public good (awareness of fraud) outweigh the individual good/need. Words were carefully chosen. I suspect the initial post as the third was to warn people and hence placed on this forum. Wider reading has shown that green investors are a common target as often new to investment, driven by need to see money 'do good', likely to trust. Shame on a system that allows lies and deceit to flourish.
Thank you for highlighting the related topic.

Reed_Richards

If contemplating any non-regulated investment, a quick Google of the generic type of investment coupled with the word scam may alert you to some of the potential pitfalls.  I'm afraid Teak Plantation scams have been going on since at least the 1990s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubhav_Plantations and are easily discovered by doing a google search on "teak plantation scam".  Sadly, this may be a demonstration of the adage that you can fool some of the people all of the time.  

Hexane

Reed_Richards said:

If contemplating any non-regulated investment, a quick Google of the generic type of investment coupled with the word scam may alert you to some of the potential pitfalls.  I'm afraid Teak Plantation scams have been going on since at least the 1990s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubhav_Plantations and are easily discovered by doing a google search on "teak plantation scam".   

"Teak plantations typically take 50–60 years before yielding returns and are extremely susceptible to weather and the subtleties of the agricultural industry. They have rarely given dependable returns [in India]" - nice. More recent instances of this type of scam mention more countries than just India, and more products than just teak (mahogany is just one that's been touted). Outcome is the same though.

The article also confirms you're correct that some of these type of scammers try to link their schemes with green or environmental concerns.

ade1066

Might I ask has anyone got very far?  As far as I know they are still trading.  Nick Durrant is still involved.

marshalljackdaw

The Daily Mail journalist Tony Hetherington (who wrote two articles on Nick Durrant in the Mail on Sunday recently) is looking for anyone who has, or who knows anyone who has, invested with Nick Durrant and Living Investments or Hyperion Management. His email address is tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk