Godwin Capital: yet another failed loan note – to add to an ever-growing list of similar notes which have ruined thousands of investors’ lives and caused widespread distress and poverty. Holborn Assets: the toxic firm in Dubai which has already ruined so many lives and destroyed so many victims’ life savings and pensions.
The Godwin Capital fraud: 2,600 victims. £160 million lost. Only about £5 million likely to be recovered.
There are three important questions to be asked:
- Why did anyone at Holborn Assets think that an unregulated loan note would be any less likely to fail than all the previous ones – such as Dolphin Trust, London Capital & Finance, Blackmore Bond and Christianson Property Capital?
- Why was Holborn Assets distributing the Godwin Capital loan note Ponzi scheme?
- Did Holborn Assets disclose the 20% commission they earned from flogging Godwin Capital loan notes to their victims? Because if not – that’s fraud.
Let’s start with the basic cause of the historical flaws in financial services which lead to so many huge disasters such as Godwin Capital:
SO MANY SO-CALLED ADVISORY FIRMS DON’T SELL ADVICE; THEY SELL PRODUCTS (FOR HIDDEN COMMISSIONS).
And here’s why Holborn Assets was so keen to flog the Godwin Capital loan notes: 20% commission. From the outset, the victim is paying 100% for something that is only worth 80%. At best. But at worst, it was only worth 3% – except that’s likely to get eaten up by the administration costs.
Were no lessons learned from the earlier Ponzi loan notes that destroyed thousands of lives? Let’s take a look at some of Godwin Capital’s predecessors:
Dolphin Trust Ponzi Scheme
25% commission paid to fraudsters who promoted the Dolphin Trust Ponzi scheme to more than 6,000 victims. The name was changed to the “German Property Group” to try to attract more victims when the loan repayments started to dry up. £1 billion was “loaned” by more than 6,000 victims to Dolphin/GPG – allegedly to buy derelict German listed buildings. Some of the loans were paid to GPG director Charles Smethurst and his family. They then spent the victims’ money on fashion shows, television stations, beauty products and parties.
London Capital & Finance Ponzi Scheme
London Capital & Finance was claimed to have been the biggest Ponzi scheme in British history. Five fraudsters responsible for this huge unregulated mini bond scam were ordered by the High Court to pay back £400m. However, the judge – Justice Robert Miles – admitted it was unlikely the defendants would be able to afford such a large amount. LCF took £237m from 12,000 victims who thought they were investing in small businesses. LCF was promoted by Paul Careless of Surge Financial, which charged 25% commission – £65m.
Blackmore Bond
Blackmore Bond was another fraudulently-run, unregulated mini bond. Also promoted by Surge Capital; also now worthless. From 2016 to 2018, BB sold £46 million worth of loan notes to 2,800 victims – allegedly to fund property developments. Victims were promised returns of 10% a year. £9.3 million was spent on marketing and management fees. In April 2020, BB collapsed. Blackmore Bond had been aggressively promoted to unsophisticated investors (illegal in the UK). The FCA stood by and did nothing – despite numerous warnings.
Blackmore Bond was run by Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreeshg of Blackmore Group – which also ran the £46 million Blackmore Global Fund (also now worthless and being wound up). Nunn and McCreesh had previously been the lead generators and promotors of the Store First pension-investment scam. But still no prosecution!
Christianson Property Capital
Christianson Property Capital was yet another mini bond that has ended up worthless. Run by fraudster Manish Gambhir – a close friend of John Ferguson and David Vilka of Aktiva/Square Mile in the Czech Republic (who, in turn, were great chums of fraudster Mark Donnelly of Brite Advisors) and Tom Fraser of EFPG in Gibraltar. Christianson was used as investments for the GFS pension scheme in Hong Kong for £15.6 million worth of pensions. Gambhir also ran Victory House which purported (falsely) to build accommodation for ex-servicemen.
WHY WAS HOLBORN ASSETS “DISTRIBUTING” GODWIN CAPITAL?
The answer is simple: Holborn Assets’ sole aim is to earn as much commission as possible out of flogging products – rather than protecting the interests of their clients. The Holborn website claims to have been “seeking clarification” about the losses faced by their many victims who were defrauded into investing in Godwin.
Holborn claims to have been consulting with the appointed administrators, specialist law firms, senior counsel (for independent legal guidance), advisory firms and insolvency practitioners across multiple jurisdictions. But amid the clanging of the stable door and the clattering of the horse’s hooves, the questions remain:
Why not do some basic due diligence BEFORE defrauding your victims? Why not put the interests of your clients before your own greed and hunger for ever-more secret commissions? Why not look back on your own previous disasters with failed investments such as Premier New Earth?
HOLBORN ASSETS‘ PREVIOUS FAILED INVESTMENTS: LF Partners; Premier New Earth; Kensington; various toxic structured notes such as Nomura.
Plus, of course, the usual fraudulent use of insurance bonds such as RL350, Old Mutual and Generali – for more undisclosed commissions.
It is very disappointing that Pension Life was warning the public about the dangers of Holborn Assets a decade ago. So let’s make sure the names of some of the people who work for Holborn Assets are featured clearly – in case any future potential victims are approached by any of them:
