The FCA has announced that it will take no further action against property investment group Wellesley & Co, which collapsed in 2020, after finding no evidence of serious misconduct.
Wellesley Finance, an unregulated entity, entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement with its creditors in October 2020.
The company, which promoted and arranged high-risk investments related to property development, owed £134.7m to around 12,000 investors at the time of its collapse.
The regulator announced an investigation into the group in 2022, but has now closed the case without taking any further action.
About £80m has been returned to investors, but the FCA said that some investors had “unfortunately” lost all that they invested.
The regulator said in a statement: “The investigation’s focus was whether investors had been given misleading information and defrauded by Wesley & Co. It found that the risks were fairly described to investors and there were no signs of fraud.
“The investigation found investors were clearly warned they could lose their money should they choose to invest, and that the products lacked FSCS coverage. It also warned investors about the risk of insolvency regarding the Wellesley companies and the underlying borrowers.”
