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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.

StratXMarkets Update

StratXMarkets Update 150 150 Safe or Scam Support

SOS is working with investors who invested very large sums into StratXMarkets, a binary option scam. Typically binary option scams involve ‘cash mules’ i.e companies which act as accomplices to take in the investment money. They provide smokescreens making it difficult for investigators to follow the money and identify the main perpetrators of the scam. A typical large-scale binary option scam will often use dozens of cash mule companies.

Cash mules are by no means innocent parties. They know exactly what they are doing and they don’t expect to get caught. They are in effect accomplices in a fraud.

We are having success in identifying some of the people involved in the StratXMarkets scam. A legal process was started in November 2018 against a UK party we identified as having received £380,000 of investor funds. The party failed to adequately respond within the timeframe defined by law and we now look forward to the commencement of formal court action in January 2019.

There are other parties we have in our sights as having liability to refund further sums owed to investors. Action will also be taken against them in January 2019. We believe that if our investors are not refunded we will be in a position to press for criminal charges to be brought. Our separate binary option website can be viewed here.

If you have been the unfortunate victim of a binary option, trading or digital currency scam please contact us. We may be able to help.

To view the previous blog comment on StratXMarkets click here

Essex and London Properties – Update

Essex and London Properties – Update 150 150 Safe or Scam Support

A proposal to investors in Essex and London Properties who have made themselves known to Safe Or Scam will be made in early January 2019. This was delayed whilst the solicitor partner sought the views of the Official Receiver. The position has now been clarified and we have the agreement of the solicitor to proceed.

Safe Or Scam has involved other professional parties to protect the position of all investors in the Limited Partnership. We believe there was only a token effort made to trace and recover money sent overseas which is evidenced by the fact that only 10% – 15% of the money has been recovered and all of that was sitting in UK bank accounts. To date, none of the money sent overseas has been recovered. The police investigation was handled by one retired police officer brought back from retirement. There is likely to have been budget restrictions which would not have allowed for a thorough investigation of the overseas aspects.

If you are an investor and you do not receive an email outlining the proposal before 10th January 2019 please contact us and we will send it over to you.

SOS has established a separate website on the Essex and London Properties scam which can be accessed via this link.

To view the previous blog comment on E&LP click here.

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