Blue Gate Capital has appointed Jason Mark Elliott and Craig Johns of Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery on 1 March 2021 to liquidate the company.
The firm was one of the operators of the Connaught Income Fund Series 1, which collapsed in 2012 causing investors to lose around £118m ($164m, €136m).
The Connaught fund was an unregulated collective investment scheme run by Capita Financial Managers and, from 2009, Blue Gate Capital, providing short term bridging finance to commercial operators in the UK property market.
Fine
In December 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered Blue Gate to pay £203,007 in restitution to investors who lost money in the Connaught Income Fund.
After an investigation into the scandal, the FCA said that the firm “failed to communicate with the fund’s investors in a way that was clear, fair and not misleading”.
The UK watchdog decided not to impose a £10m fine for breaking these regulatory rules because Blue Gate had “established it was in serious financial hardship”.
The FCA said: “Blue Gate had until 8 January 2021 to pay the restitution to us for onward distribution to investors. We subsequently issued a statutory demand for payment. Blue Gate’s shareholders decided to place the business into insolvent liquidation via a creditors voluntary liquidation.”
The financial regulator added that it “will make a claim in the liquidation, as a creditor, for the restitution amount”.
