A further 40% of those surveyed said they had never received any kind of description of the investment risk putting money into Harlequin might represent, the survey – released by Regulatory Legal’s Risk Warning arm – found.
And, although 40% said they had asked for their money back from Harlequin, “only two” investors – or fewer than 2% of those surveyed, have received a refund.
The responses were from a total of 800 surveys that were sent out. Only three of the 154 respondents said they had received their property and title to it.
Harlequin Property is a Basildon, England-based property company that has been in the spotlight in recent months, as delays in completing some of its luxury property developments in places like Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Brazil have put pressure on the company’s finances and called attention to the way it was marketed to investors.
As reported, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office and Essex Police said last month that they were "looking into complaints in relation to the Harlequin Group". This came after the Financial Services Authority issued an alert on the company in January, and a few weeks later contacted providers of self-invested personal pensions, asking them to say whether they had any clients invested in the firm.
A BBC television show had been scheduled to look at the subject of Harlequin Property and its unhappy investors on 25 March but was postponed at the last minute. A producer of the show was suspended and later resigned, amid allegations that attempts had been made to bribe a Harlequin employee for information.
‘Misleading’: Harlequin
In a statement today, the developer responded that the Regulatory Legal survey was “grossly misleading, as it concentrates on a tiny number of unhappy investors that have completed questionnaires”, and insisted that “in reality, the number of investors that want [their] money back is a tiny percentage” of the total.
In fact, the Regulatory Legal survey does say that it did “not seek to represent the views of the total Harlequin investor population, but summarises the views of those investors who were sufficiently concerned about their situation to seek representation” by its Risk Warning division.
In a statement responding to the Regulatory Legal allegations, Harlequin added that the law firm had also been behind claims, some weeks ago, that Harlequin’s assets would be frozen, which it noted had not happened.
“This is nothing more than an unreliable source clawing for further attention and business,” Harlequin said.
Other findings of the Regulatory Legal survey:
- Two-thirds of the survey’s respondents said that contractual completion dates for properties they purchased through the Harlequin Property Scheme between 2008 and 2010 had not been met
- Half of respondents who had taken out mortgages with the understanding that Harlequin would support the mortgage interest payments said the payments were not at that point up to date
Separately, a spokesman for Harlequin told International Adviser that the company is hosting “open days” in various locations in an effort to keep its investors informed, particularly “in light of recent events”. By this, he said he meant an ongoing court case in Ireland, against one of its former contractors, and numerous recent articles in the UK and Caribbean press, about this court case and other issues having to do with Harlequin’s unfinished resort properties.
Because these open days are for Harlequin’s investors and agents exclusively and are not open to the general public, he declined to say when and where the next ones are scheduled to take place.
