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Safe or Scam Support
July 12, 2019
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Phenco Oil Scam

Phenco Oil Scam https://safeorscam.net/wp-content/uploads/eg-image-4-e1578505615888.jpg 400 267 Safe or Scam Support Safe or Scam Support https://safeorscam.net/wp-content/wphb-cache/gravatar/642/642aaef7288103da232f20a880c97500x96.jpg July 12, 2019 September 22, 2021

Phenco Ltd has lost a case brought by a Safe Or Scam client in the High Court in London and will now be wound up by Order of the Court.

Phenco was one of the five oil scam companies controlled by Martin Finch, Glenn King and David Hyman. The Order was issued on 10th July 2019.

On 11th July 2019 Martin Finch tried to claim he had informed investors in February 2019 of a re-organisation of the oil contracts. Of course, none of the investors received this fictitious notification in February. It is entirely false.

During May and June 2019, Martin Finch stopped communicating with investors. It could be alleged that he was off trying to falsify records to throw everyone off the scent, but we wouldn’t allege that.

Any person involved in a fraud of this kind of size would be in serious trouble. They would be better holding their hands up and owning up to what they’ve done. It is never wise to try to cover up after the event because you will always be found out and then you are as guilty as the people who benefitted the most.

It appears that the people involved in oil scams are so toxic that even their solicitors stop working with them.

We’ve done a good job of bringing the Phenco scam to an end. Phenco Ltd will now be wound up and we expect other associated companies to follow. Tristone Holdings and Venture Equity are other oil scams run by the same people. Now we can move to the next phase which is to gather evidence of fraud and bring in our funders who are keen to support private prosecutions. Phenco may not realise it but it will have left a trail. Scammers always do.

To read more on Phenco, Osage 1, Kansas MB, Kansas B2, Sooner Energy, Tristone Holdings and Venture Equity please visit this website

To view our more recent update on the Phenco oil scam please click on this link.

Please also visit our blog page to catch up with our previous blogs on this company and our other investigations.

Safe or Scam Support
April 4, 2019
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Phenco Oil

Phenco Oil https://safeorscam.net/wp-content/uploads/canstockphoto42860775-e1631893955699.jpg 300 200 Safe or Scam Support Safe or Scam Support https://safeorscam.net/wp-content/wphb-cache/gravatar/642/642aaef7288103da232f20a880c97500x96.jpg April 4, 2019 September 22, 2021

An update to Phenco oil investors was sent out by Martin Finch on 4^th April 2019. In brief it said [paraphrased]:

Chainbox Technology has been contacted by several shareholders and Safe Or Scam. As a result Chainbox has decided to withdraw its services for the time being.

Martin Finch now has to start from scratch finding a company solely geared to distribute payments to a large number of shareholders for as little fees as possible.

There then followed a paragraph about progress at one of the sites, along with some photographs. We aren’t interested in that aspect because we would remind investors of three oil investments in Illinois which were established and sold by UK companies between 2012-2014. Those investments were:

Rocky Point Energy / Armadillo Energy / Hockley Energy

All three of those investments provided investors with photographs of progress. They also welcomed investors to the well sites to see for themselves. Unfortunately none of the wells in the photographs and none of the sites were actually owned by the companies. They were scams.

We are not saying that the photographs provided by Phenco oil are fake. The fact is that nobody knows. The history of previous US oil scams proves these things are easy to fake. What is not in doubt is the fact that Mr Finch has taken in around £15 million for five oil companies and yet shareholders know absolutely nothing about the US companies involved or where most of the £15 million went. All we do know is that the money didn’t go into the purchase of assets.

In our contact with Chainbox Technology we described the fact that the five oil companies had used Jade State Wealth to make payments. We described three known scams which had also used Jade State Wealth. One is in administration and two are in liquidation. One of them is the subject of a fraud investigation and we fully expect the other two to also become the subject of fraud investigations. We asked the owner, Mr Spurling, to provide us with reassurance. Our request is copied below:

I am writing to ask for your assurance that you have checked out the source of funds paid out to shareholders in all five [oil] companies and you can emphatically verify that neither yourself nor any of your companies are involved in illicit transactions or money laundering. We will post your reply online.

Whilst you may feel that it is acceptable for 70% of a new shareholder’s investment to be paid out in fees and commissions, we do not. We regard that as a scam.

Mr Spurling did not respond. However, Mr Finch did respond even though we did not write to him. His response was that we should leave Chainbox alone.

So now it appears that Mr Finch does not have “a platform” to make the payments to shareholders. We have a solution for him. He could use a company called PHENCO LTD.

Hundreds of thousands of companies in the UK manage to make payments to their shareholders so why can’t Phenco oil itself make the payments ?

The last filing on the register at Companies House shows that Phenco has 194 shareholders. That is not a large number. Payment can be done very easily in one day. Most UK bank accounts allow multiple payments to be made online via bank transfer. Even with “a platform” Mr Finch has to provide the platform with the bank details of every shareholder and he has to tell the platform how much to pay each shareholder.

It’s very odd that Phenco can produce royalty statements for every shareholder showing the percentage and amount they are owed, but can’t then press a few buttons and make the payment. Surely having to give all the information to a platform is much more time-consuming than Phenco just making the payments itself.

Mr Finch’s excuses do not make sense. It appears that he goes to great lengths to ensure that shareholders cannot trace the source of the payments. He uses offshore currency exchange services and then a payment distribution provider. Although his UK companies allegedly have the contracts with US counterparts the royalties are never paid into the bank accounts of the UK companies. That is a very strange arrangement which raises questions about money laundering and the tracking of payments.

Mr Finch is the only employee of Phenco Ltd. He could process the payments in one day. If he did it himself he would save the company a lot of money.

So there is the solution. Phenco Ltd could pay its own shareholders from its own UK bank account.

To view the next update on the Phenco oil scam please click on this link.

Safe or Scam Support
March 24, 2019
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Osage 1 Phenco Oil

Osage 1 Phenco Oil https://safeorscam.net/wp-content/uploads/canstockphoto40337671-e1581878084460.jpg 300 233 Safe or Scam Support Safe or Scam Support https://safeorscam.net/wp-content/wphb-cache/gravatar/642/642aaef7288103da232f20a880c97500x96.jpg March 24, 2019 September 22, 2021

The five oil companies of Kansas B2 Project Ltd, Kansas MB Project Ltd, Sooner Energy SPV-1 Ltd, Osage 1 Ltd and Phenco Ltd, fronted by Martin Finch but controlled by two shadow directors, Glenn Jamie King and David Alexander Hyman, use a company called Chainbox Technology to make alleged royalty payments to investors. Chainbox is part of a portfolio of firms owned by the Spurling family. They also own Spurlings Accountants Ltd.

In the cases of Osage 1, Phenco and Sooner Energy shareholders, no payments have been made for nine months. The excuse given to shareholders in all three companies is that Martin Finch has been unable to find “a platform” to be able to make the payments. This is very interesting because Kansas B2 Project Ltd and Kansas MB Project Ltd shareholders received their payments in January this year. They were paid by Chainbox Technology – the company with just one director, Terry Frank Joel Spurling, aged 81.

If it isn’t “platform issues” it is blamed on the banks. We all know how impossible it is to transfer US dollars from the USA to the UK and how it can easily take nine months. The USA is recognised as a third world country with absolutely no bank controls, horrendous governance over funds, a reputation for money laundering on a massive scale and a country that just cannot be trusted. It is right up there with Somalia and Colombia for illicit transactions. Martin Finch would have investors believe that it just isn’t possible to transfer money from the USA to the UK.

So how is it possible for shareholders in the two companies which allegedly have oil operations in Kansas to be paid, yet shareholders in the other three companies haven’t been paid ? Perhaps that question should be levelled at Chainbox Technology. They seem to have stepped into the shoes of the previous “money man”. The previous dodgy partner of the oil companies was Jade State Wealth Ltd. This company will be well known to people who have lost their total investments. It has been involved in more scams than we can count. The last one, Essex and London Properties Ltd, was probably their undoing. That company has been the subject of an investigation by the Fraud Team at Essex Police. Not by coincidence we believe the people involved in the oil companies are well acquainted with Essex Police.

As mentioned in a previous blog post Glenn King, David Hyman and Henry George Berry are raising money for a new oil venture called Tristone Holdings. We expect some of that money to be siphoned off in the direction of Osage 1, Phenco and Sooner Energy to pay shareholders because there is a lot of unrest amongst shareholder in those three companies. Of course, siphoning off money like that would be illegal but we doubt that would bother them too much.

Martin Finch is still claiming, nine months on, that it isn’t possible for a US company to transfer money to the UK. What a ridiculous statement. He is steadfastly refusing to provide any information on company performance to shareholders, including refusing to tell anyone in Osage 1, Phenco or Sooner Energy the total amount of royalties the various companies are owed or the amount that each individual shareholder is owed. He just says that payments are allegedly held in limbo because of banking compliance.

If you have received a payment from Chainbox Technology or you would like to know whether they are the platform which is holding up your payments you can contact them at:

Chainbox Technology Ltd, Unit 9, 97-101 Peregrine Road, Hainault Business Park, Ilford, IG6 3XH.

Alternatively, give them a call at Spurlings Accountants. Their number is 02085 533071. If you would prefer to drop in they claim to be at 112b High Road, Ilford which has an entrance at the side of the building in Chadwick Road.

We would love to hear what they have to say about their involvement with Finch, King and Hyman.

If you would like to contact the Managing Director with questions about their involvement you should email david.spurling@btconnect.com . We don’t think it can be a very big firm because most firms, even small ones, have their own domain name. Sometimes very small firms are grateful for any kind of business, no matter how shady. The trouble is that it always backfires on them in the end.

To view the next article in the saga of the five UK oil companies please click here.

Safe or Scam Support
February 7, 2019
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Tristone Holdings Ltd

Tristone Holdings Ltd https://safeorscam.net/wp-content/uploads/canstockphoto50051281-e1606255565429.jpg 360 240 Safe or Scam Support Safe or Scam Support https://safeorscam.net/wp-content/wphb-cache/gravatar/642/642aaef7288103da232f20a880c97500x96.jpg February 7, 2019 September 22, 2021

Tristone Holdings Ltd is a new oil investment offered by the people behind Osage1, Phenco, Kansas MB, Kansas B2 and Sooner Energy.

The original five oil companies operate from this address – Suite 11, Braxted Park Road, Great Braxted, Witham.

Tristone Holdings Ltd operates from Suite 11a, Braxted Park Road, Great Braxted, Witham. There is no Suite 11a. It must be a desk and chair in Suite 11…..

Glenn King has been touting Tristone Holdings around various sales companies in an attempt to raise another £4m+ from investors. This will be disappointing news to the 700+ investors in King’s other oil companies who have not been paid their quarterly returns for the past nine months. At Companies House these five original companies are shown as being run by Martin Finch, however there is no doubt that Glenn King and David Hyman are the people establishing and controlling these companies.

Tristone Holdings Ltd is selling its own shares to investors (much the same model as with the other oil companies), but this time instead of using unregulated sales agents to sell the investments, working unlawfully from hard-sell scripts provided by Glenn King, it has gone fully regulated and is selling Tristone through regulated channels. It does bring into question the honesty and integrity of some FCA-regulated companies.

Of course, there is no mention of Glenn King being involved because that would be the kiss of death to the investment. Neither is there any mention of Martin Finch. It seems that his links to the failing oil companies are not a good selling point.

So, if Martin Finch has been dropped from the team, who actually makes it into this select group. Well, there are the usual suspects based in the USA. Unsurprisingly, Rick Coody is one of them. It must be very difficult for Glenn King to find anyone to join the team with the reputation that he, Hyman and Finch have. Rick Coody is known to investors in the five UK oil companies because he is also listed as being one of the US-based members in their teams. He already has a conviction for fraud relating to an oil investment so he is ideally suited to be in the Tristone Holdings team.

There is also mention of UK company, Venture Equity Ltd, being the fourth member of the team, whilst also being the corporate director of Tristone Holdings Ltd.

As you may have guessed, the registered office of Venture Equity Ltd is Suite 11, Braxted Park Road. It must be very difficult to move in that small office with so many companies allegedly working out of there.

According to the Information Memorandum “[Venture Equity] has previously engaged in capital raising ventures within the oil and gas sectors….” What that statement fails to mention is that the fundraising was for Finch, Hyman and King enterprises and all have ripped off investors by paying huge commissions and fees from investor subscriptions, typically 50% – 70%, to Glenn King and his associates.

What the Information Memorandum does not mention is that there is another director of Tristone Holdings Ltd. Odd that it doesn’t mention him. That director is Mr Henry George Berry. Why no mention of him in the sales literature ? Why no mention of Henry George Berry being in the team ? Could it be that he, like David Hyman, has learnt the value of hiding in the background and keeping a low profile ? Not only is Mr Berry not mentioned as being in the team, on page 5 where it actually lists the directors of Tristone Holdings Ltd there is only Venture Equity Ltd, yet the register at Companies House clearly shows there are two directors – Henry George Berry and Venture Equity Ltd.

Well, we can put that to rights here and now. Step forward Mr Henry George Berry who, it should be noted, is not only a director of Tristone Holdings Ltd but is actually also the sole director and sole shareholder of Venture Equity ! That may change as unfortunate investors are persuaded to invest in this dishonest investment.

So.…. Henry George Berry is an undeclared director of Tristone Holdings Ltd whilst also being the sole director of Tristone’s corporate director, Venture Equity Ltd, but he doesn’t want his personal name to show up anywhere in print. Confused ?

A lot of effort has gone into ensuring that Henry George Berry is not mentioned by name. Perhaps that was one of the conditions he laid down before agreeing to be involved in yet another dubious investment. We will be publishing more on Mr Henry George Berry in future because he has an interesting past with more links to Glenn King.

Investors in the five oil companies may also recognise the name of Henry George Berry from the recent past. We have been provided with copies of the declared dividend statements issued by Martin Finch. It is unlawful for a loss-making company to declare dividends. Some might say that was done to make investors think the company was profitable. Those present at the Board Meetings where those illegal dividends were declared were Martin Finch and Henry George Berry.

Finally, investors may want to know the names of the FCA regulated entities involved in this investment. There are two of them. They are:

Blue Water Capital Ltd of 53 Calthorpe Road, Edgbaston. Birmingham. B15 1TH. This company is worth closer investigation. It was only incorporated in July 2017 and is a one-man firm. Mr Henry William Daniel Porter is the sole director and sole shareholder. As with any new FCA-regulated business you should be very careful who you choose to partner with.

City One Securities Ltd, One Royal Exchange Avenue, London. EC3V 3LT. This is the company which has approved the Information Memorandum, but which “accepts no liability for the accuracy of any information contained in the document“.

To view the previous post on these oil companies please click here

To view a more recent article on the UK oil scams please click here.

To visit the separate website for investors in these oil companies please click on this link and read through the blog pages.