Incommunities

Prosperity – Update 2

Prosperity – Update 2 150 150 Safe or Scam Support

Prosperity Update 2 – A total of 64 investors at the Prosperity Wealth development at Bentley Court and Parkwood Court (aka Parkwood Rise) have signed contracts to participate in an action to recover their investments.

This represents a very high number of investors who are unhappy with the way this development was promoted to them by Prosperity Wealth, and the inadequate legal advice they received from their solicitor which it is alleged amounts to gross negligence, and the rapidly escalating fees charged for the ground rent and the service charges.

It is the view of Safe Or Scam that the sale of apartments in these tower blocks was an elaborate and carefully constructed structure to try to circumvent Financial Conduct Authority regulations regarding the establishment and operation of an unregulated collective investment scheme.

An unregulated collective investment scheme (a UCIS) is a structure which involves the pooling of investments and it can only be sold by FCA regulated entities to investors who meet strict criteria. The entities involved in the formation, operation and sale of the Prosperity UCIS were not regulated by the FCA. No attempt was made to qualify investors to ensure they were suitable recipients of the investment promotional material.

The sale of a UCIS by unregulated sales companies to unqualified investors makes the contracts unlawful and unenforceable i.e the contracts would be deemed illegal. Investors who have lost money by investing in a UCIS are entitled to a full refund. All parties involved in the formation, promotion, operation or facilitation of a UCIS can be included as defendants with liability to refund investors. The Prosperity scheme at Bentley Court and Parkwood Court is not just a UCIS in the opinion of Safe Or Scam. It is also the opinion of one of the UK’s leading barristers specialising in financial services legislation.

It is clear to us that this was on Prosperity’s mind because their promotional material which, don’t forget, was supposed to be the sale of apartments, stated that “this is not a collective investment scheme” on two separate pages within the brochure. We have never seen any property brochure which mentions ‘collective investment scheme’ even once. It just does not appear in any bona-fide property sale brochure because a straightforward property sale is not a UCIS so there is no need to ever mention it.

There are loop-holes that can be exploited to try to circumvent UCIS regulations but most of those have failed when the matter is brought to court. The courts have tended to look beyond the clever structures to determine what the actual intent was. In the vast majority of cases the courts have concluded that the structures were simply cloaking mechanisms to try to get around the regulations. The perpetrators have been found guilty of participating in a UCIS.

It is our opinion that Prosperity PDC Management (Cyprus) Ltd i.e Prosperity Wealth and ALB Investments Ltd were involved in a UCIS. It remains to be seen whether this was known by other parties involved in the transaction who may have decided to turn a blind eye. Investors were not informed of the ownership of the tower blocks by their recommended law firm and they were not warned that their contracts may be regarded as illegal. We believe that no investor would ever have entered into a contract if they had been advised that the scheme may be regarded as a UCIS and that the contracts may be declared unlawful in the future.

The parties involved in the investment were:

PDC Prosperity Investment (Cyprus) Ltd / PDC Prosperity Management (Cyprus) Ltd / Incommunities Ltd / ALB Investments Ltd / Let Me Property Ltd / Allchurch Solicitors.

There is a stand-alone website dedicated to the Prosperity investment at Bentley Court and Parkwood Court which can be viewed on this LINK.

To read the previous post related to Prosperity on this website please click HERE.

Prosperity Update 1

Prosperity Update 1 150 150 Safe or Scam Support

Investors who purchased apartments in the Prosperity tower blocks at Bentley Court and Parkwood Court in Keighley, West Yorkshire are now receiving contracts from the UK law firm leading the recovery action.

In total more than 70 investors have requested contracts.

There are already several culpable parties against whom action can be taken for their roles in facilitating, establishing, promoting, operating or participating in this flawed Prosperity scheme, with at least two further parties still under investigation.

Investors, who have recently been informed of substantial hikes in ground rents (which is a scam in itself) and in service management fees, have now been told that one of the tower blocks needs a complete overhaul of its fire management system in order to comply with the advice of West Yorkshire Fire Services. This is little over one year after they were informed that their apartments were complete, had been fully inspected and signed off by the developer’s appointed firm as meeting specifications. Clearly this latest news casts doubt over the parties who signed off on the apartments.

The more one looks into this investment product the more concerning it becomes. This was not just one rogue company ripping off investors. It appears to have been a conspiracy between a number of organisations to mislead investors.

To read the previous blog on Prosperity click here .

To visit the recently published website for Prosperity investors please click this link. This site will be kept up to date via the blog page.

Busy Start

Busy Start 150 150 Safe or Scam Support

The new year is only nine days old and our investigations into dodgy investments are back into full flow.

A low-cost legal action which was started in December against Clear View Marketing Services Ltd / European Property Coin took another step forward this week. We will be able to update investors on that at the end of the month.

The same is true of our action against a company involved in the huge StratXMarkets binary options scam. Lawyers representing the defendants in the claim appeared for the first time today. We think they will struggle to convince a court of their client’s innocence. Our client invested several hundred thousand pounds and they have failed to adequately respond to his claim or to explain their involvement. We think that as a result of our investigations this could easily end up with criminal charges being raised against the perpetrators.

Another conference call is arranged with a UK solicitor representing property owners in the Prosperity site at Bentley Court and Parkwood Court in Keighley. The call will be on 10th January where the solicitor will give an overview of his experience and an outline of the case against the opponents.

We have finally put a proposal to investors in the Essex and London Properties scam. It has taken a long time because of a Police investigation and the involvement of the Official Receiver but both a barrister and a UK solicitor believe there is a viable case against some of the parties involved. Conference calls with the solicitor are being set up so that investors can ask any questions they wish to raise.

The OurSpace Workspaces Ponzi Scheme investigation is going well. The administrator appointed by Kevan Halliwell / OurSpace Investments Ltd (Malta company) remains reluctant to answer straightforward and direct questions. We have had no answers to three emails, the earliest one was sent on 11th December 2018. In our opinion they are administrating a company that does not own the assets which Halliwell claims it does. Halliwell and Douglass tried to stitch up investors by removing the assets from investor control but they messed it up. This one will run for a long time. We asked the administration firm to advise us of their first contact with Kevan Halliwell and OurSpace. We asked if it was in 2017 when the asset transfer was being considered. They have not yet replied.

The Final Letter Before Action was issued to Simon Whittley of St Helier Capital Management Ltd, Win River Developments Ltd, Hawksbill Property Holdings PLC and others. There’s a lot of scams linked to one person. This one is another case in which the defendant has no viable defence. We are looking forward to investors having their day in court with this one. Even his long-term accomplice Simon Paler has been distancing himself from the companies in recent months.

Finally, we have held discussions with professional firms and investors over the action which can be taken against the oil investments run by three men – Martin Finch, Glenn Jamie King and David Alexander Hyman. The oil investment companies are Osage 1 Ltd, Phenco Ltd, Sooner-Energy SPV-1 Ltd, Kansas MB Project Ltd and Kansas B2 Project Ltd. Our investigations are continuing but we believe there is light at the end of the tunnel for investors.

We have probably missed a few off but it has been a very busy start. Our aim is to help ordinary investors recover some of their money from scammers and we are having some success.

Investigating investments is a regulated activity in the UK. We have chosen NOT to be FCA-regulated. As a result, British citizens are not allowed to view our content, use our services or benefit from the regular Scam Alert warnings on our blog page. This restriction only applies to citizens of Great Britain and does not apply to other countries. A lot of scam victims around the world regularly view our website and benefit from the information we provide. We are not required to check who visits the website and we do not record any information on anyone who clicks the "I CONFIRM" button below. 

Safe Or Scam is prohibited by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (and associated regulations) from allowing individuals ordinarily resident in Great Britain to access our pages or use our services. Therefore, if any one of the following three statements apply to you the FCA prohibition applies.

1.  I am currently ordinarily resident in the Great Britain; or
2.  I was ordinarily resident in the Great Britain at the time I made my investment; or
3.  I made my investment through my company which is incorporated under the laws of England and Wales and Scotland.

If NONE of the above apply you may proceed to have free access to the website by clicking the "I CONFIRM" button below.

I CONFIRM

Our Scam Alert articles are sponsored by a not-for-profit UK company which is permitted to provide services to residents of Great Britain. If you are prohibited from viewing this website because one of the statements above apply to you, but you would like assistance from the UK company, please complete the Contact Form below. Please note: if you meet the requirements to click the "I CONFIRM" button above, you do not need to complete any details below.   






    By Submitting you agree with the SOS Privacy Policy