Kevan Halliwell of OurSpace Made Bankrupt

Kevan Halliwell of OurSpace Made Bankrupt.

On 19th October 2023 the London Gazette announced the bankruptcy of Kevan Halliwell. Here is a LINK to the Gazette Notice.

Kevan Halliwell was the founder of the ‘OurSpace’ group of companies which defrauded investors of an estimated total of $30 million. The OurSpace concept was a clone of the Barworks model conceived and operated by Renwick Haddow who is currently under house arrest in the USA awaiting sentencing. Barworks defrauded investors of approximately $36 million.

Both scams sold ‘workspaces’ at around $25,000 per space. The investors were promised an annual return of 10% on their workspaces with a guaranteed buy-back at some point in the future ,typically 5 years, at the price they paid + a premium (normally between 25% – 50%).

The OurSpace story goes as follows:

Barworks was formed first by Renwick Haddow. Haddow was a serial scammer. He had a business relationship with a man called James Moore who had a sales network which was second to none. James Moore is currently serving 11 years in a US prison for his part in selling oil investments in the USA and Barworks. Haddow sold him out as part of his plea bargain deal to reduce his sentence.

Barworks was incredibly easy to sell. James Moore did a great job for Renwick Haddow. Never one to miss an opportunity, Moore went to Haddow and said he wanted to be given shares in Barworks. Haddow refused so Moore secretly set up a copycat operation called OurSpace with Kevan Halliwell as the front man. Moore stopped selling Barworks and put his sales network onto selling OurSpace.  Barworks collapsed because it was a Ponzi scheme. Barworks needed to keep bringing in more and more investors to keep the Ponzi alive, but the withdrawal of Moore’s sales agents meant that Barworks wasn’t able to sell enough workspaces to new investors to keep up the 10% returns to investors. Once Barworks collapsed it wasn’t long before OurSpace collapsed. Sales dried up once investors realised the workspace + guaranteed rental + buy-backs investment was a Ponzi Scheme.

The only sensible thing that Halliwell did was not to promote OurSpace in the USA. If he had then he would also be under lock and key in the US awaiting sentencing. Haddow based his HQ in the USA whereas Halliwell’s centre of operations was Dubai. This has enabled Halliwell to get off lightly so far. That’s not to say that there is not more to come in the Halliwell story.

Kevan Halliwell of OurSpace Made Bankrupt.