Investigations

StratXMarkets was the trading name of an organisation involved in scam binary options trading.  It used a series of money mule companies to collect the money.  One of those was Access Corporate Ltd.

Safe Or Scam was able to trace some of the payments made by a client to a Metro Bank account which we believed was owned by Access Corporate Ltd.  We challenged the company over its relationship with StratXMarkets and were not happy with the response we received.

On 22^nd May 2019 the High Court in London issued a winding up order over Access Corporate Ltd. The case was brought by a Safe Or Scam client who had lost a considerable sum of money in the StratXMarkets binary options scam.  The case has now passed to an insolvency practitioner appointed by the Official Receiver.

The company director of Access Corporate Ltd, Mr Derrick Williams, had tried to avoid an investigation by placing the company into voluntary liquidation before the winding up hearing.  He failed and there is now an official investigation into the company’s affairs and the conduct of Mr Williams.

There were several other money mule companies involved in StratXMarkets and we are now turning our attention to those companies in order to recover funds for our clients.  Some of those companies have dissolved but that is not an issue for us because we can still take action.  The people involved in the StratXMarkets scam include Gregory Odia, Alan Curran, Ross St Clare and Bogdan Pepenica.  The majority of salesmen who contacted investors were using false names.

Safe Or Scam has ongoing investigations into several other binary option trading operations. We would like to hear from any investors who have been victims of these schemes.  Our action against StratXMarkets is proof that even if there appear to be no leads we can still find some of these scammers and hold them to account.

Prosperity is a large property developer with at least a dozen developments in the Midlands and North of England. A large group of investors is now involved in an action to recover their money.

In 2018 Safe Or Scam started an investigation into Prosperity, its partners and associates. We were initially interested in the Prosperity developments at Bentley Court, Parkwood Rise, Tameway Plaza, The Parade and Prosperity House.

As a result of our investigation more than 70 investors are taking part in an action against Allchurch Solicitors, the law firm which was engaged to represent investors in the purchase of the properties. Allchurch was “the preferred law firm” recommended by Prosperity. It is our experience that when a law firm is recommended by the other side this often means that they are not as stringent and impartial as they should be. The claim put forward by investors is that Allchurch Solicitors, the owner of which has a long historical association with the owner of Prosperity developments, was negligent and did not act in the best interests of its client investors.

Prosperity continues to promote its latest developments in Birmingham and Halifax. We understand that it has been making discounted offers to investors in an effort to bring more cash into the company.

Prosperity has not responded to complaints made by property investors which include allegations that the company misled them in the sales process by making false and misleading statements in the brochures and in the sales literature. Investors’ dissatisfaction with the whole package include the fact that there were inflated valuations; shoddy workmanship; poor quality fittings; lower rental incomes than were described in the promotional material; guaranteed rentals that never materialised and a lack of response from Prosperity to valid customer complaints.

The solicitor representing investors is now in discussions with the Allchurch Solicitors insurance company and solicitors representing the insurance company. We expect other parties to be dragged into the claim because we believe there are third parties who were culpable and have some liability towards investors in this Prosperity action.

Investor expectation is that they will receive full refunds from this investment and will be able to rid themselves of the over-priced, low quality, mis-represented properties which have become a millstone around their necks and are continuing to result in ongoing losses. We will report on the outcome when the cases is finally resolved.

Please click HERE to view our earlier Blog Post on Prosperity Developments.

Bar Works Inc was an investment involving more than 20 scam companies in the USA, the Bahamas, Turkey and elsewhere founded by serial fraudster Renwick Haddow. SOS gathered the investors and evidence enabling a GRA to be started against Central FX, a UK FCA-regulated entity involved in the fraudulent scheme. More than 50 investors are participating in the action with a total claim value in excess of £5 million. The claim is being led by a UK solicitor specialising in financial regulation claims.

Renwick Haddow was a declared bankrupt and a former disqualified director. He was a defendant in a trial brought by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, the resulting judgement being an Order for Haddow to pay £16.9m in compensation. During the period between hearings he fled to the United States and established Bar Works Inc with his new wife. The company raised in excess of $36m for a workspace ponzi scheme.

One of his accomplices in the fraud was Jim Moore who was recently convicted in the USA for his part in another investment scam and is now facing charges related to Bar Works Inc. Jim Moore was the master sales agent for the company before switching allegiance to OurSpace, another workspace ponzi scheme which operated out of Dubai. OurSpace was a Bar Works clone run by Kevan Halliwell. It has also collapsed owing almost $30 million to investors. Safe Or Scam is also investigating the OurSpace fraud on behalf of a group of investors.

Safe Or Scam has collected Witness Statements from a sample group of Bar Works investors who used the services of Central FX. The statements question the level of due diligence undertaken by Central FX on Bar Works Inc. It was a Delaware company which was controlled by Renwick Haddow since incorporation. With his known history and highly publicised involvement in scam investments, investors are asking how that was missed by Central FX. Since the case was taken up by the UK solicitor, Haddow has been arrested in Morocco and extradited to the USA, and courts in the US have ruled that Bar Works Inc was a ponzi scheme.

This recovery action relates to an investment involving Solari Energy based in Australia, Global Biofuels Group based in Hong Kong, a currency exchange company based in Switzerland, I-transact Ltd based in the UK and Igoria Trade based in Poland. The SOS investigation revealed that this was a smokescreen. The perpetrators were British citizens living in the UK assisted by a man in Australia. 38 investors are now involved in a GRA established by Safe Or Scam and led by a UK solicitor.