Burton & Bailey Escrow Scam

Burton & Bailey Escrow Scam

Burton & Bailey are operating a follow-on-fraud targeting the victims of investment scams.  We were contacted by a woman who had invested in the Park First scam after she was contacted by one of the Burton & Bailey scammers and she wanted to know whether they were genuine or not.  They are not genuine.  It is a follow-on-fraud.

They use the domain name of burtonbailey.com which was purchased less than three months ago on 30^th April 2021.  They have been able to publish a website in that time – LINK to website here.  The website looks professional and it is easy to see why some of their intended victims will be taken in by it.

According to the website the company is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but the Home Page has a lot of detail on The Enterprise Investment Scheme (“EIS”) which is a UK Government tax-efficient investment scheme !  Not sure what relevance that has at all to the alleged business of Burton & Bailey.  Sometimes scammers want to make it appear that they know what they are talking about so they’ll pick up text from any financial website and use it on their site.  That is what they have done here.

For example, this section below is from the Burton & Bailey Escrow Scam website:

Early stage businesses who have raised finance under the EIS scheme may fall victim to the difficult market conditions. EIS relief requires a business to meet certain relevant conditions throughout a 3 year period from the date of investment, so what does it mean for investors who claimed tax relief on their investments if a business goes into liquidation in this timeframe?

Income Tax – Relief Withdrawal:

–    If the EIS company goes into liquidation within (generally) three years of the share issue, Income Tax relief originally given is clawed back.  The amount clawed back is 30% of any value received on liquidation (up to a maximum of the relief originally given).
–    However, if the value received on liquidation is considered insignificant or no value is received at all, no Income Tax relief is withdrawn.

Capital Gains Tax Deferral – Relief Withdrawal:

–    If an EIS investment was used to defer a capital gain, this gain will become chargeable on the liquidation.

Use of Losses:

–    If the liquidation proceeds are less than the original investment a loss arises. This loss is reduced by any Income Tax relief not withdrawn.
–    The loss can be set against income in the year of the disposal or the preceding year.
–    Alternatively, the loss can be set against capital gains made in the year of the loss, or carried forward to be set against future capital gains arising.

It has been lifted word for word from the website of Bishop Fleming, a reputable UK company.  Here is a LINK to the section on the Bishop Fleming website.

We have copied below the email which the investor received.  The investor was initially cold-called on her home telephone.

From: Admin | Burton & Bailey

Sent:

To:

Subject: Burton & Bailey Introduction

Dear

Thanks for speaking with us earlier today.

As explained over the telephone, we are currently carrying out a few legal checks on your active investment. Typically these checks consist of asset authenticity, its value (if any), and eligibility for any potential sale.

 Please allow 1-2 working days for these checks to complete. Once completed, we will be in contact with any results we feel are pertinent to discuss in terms of any potential sale opportunity.

In the meantime and in order to support the best possible outcome for your case, please provide as much information as you can regarding your investment for us to investigate. If you have any proof of ownership documents such as bond or share certificates, payment confirmations, etc. please send them in for us to review accordingly.

In the meantime, should you require further information on our company, you can view our website online at www.burtonbailey.com.

 Should you wish to reach us by telephone, you can reach us on our free-phone number at 0800 031 8239. Please note however there may be waiting times with this method of contact.

We will be in touch with you in due course.

Kind regards,

Michael Trainor

We were able to warn the investor straight away that this was a scam.  This investor, like many investors, has received several follow-on-fraud approaches in the past and we have been able to help her spot them.  She’s a woman of few words, but it’s nice to receive praise once in a while.  It’s a bit too short to put on our testimonial page, but here it is anyway.

Thanks

 You guys do an amazing job.

 

Burton & Bailey Escrow Scam.