The UK high court has shut down a group of investment companies for running a “systemic scam”.
The Sentor group comprised of Sentor Solutions Commercial Ltd, Fabcourt Developments Ltd, Sentor Solutions Advisory Ltd, and Sentor Solutions Ltd. The latter two changed their names and most recently traded as Hall Contracting Services Ltd and Clarkson Murphy Partners, respectively, the Insolvency Service said.
The high court appointed the Official Receiver as the liquidator for the group of companies.
According to the Insolvency Service, Fabcourt Developments provided promotional material to investors offering a property investment scheme which promised fixed rate products – also known as convertible loan notes – with high monthly or quarterly interest rates for a total duration of two or three years.
They told investors the products were backed by the government and that they were covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Sentor Solutions Commercial and Clarkson Murphy Partners were named as the security trustee for the scheme.
But Fabcourt Developments was in fact the successor to Sampson Property Developments, previously known as Texmoore Limited, a company that operated the same scam until it entered into compulsory liquidation in March 2022 after a creditors petition.
Both Clarkson Murphy Partners and Hall Contracting Services were security trustees for the Sampson scam.
The group of companies took more than £2m ($2.2m, €2.3m) from investors, plus a further $500,000 (£439,266, €504,365), the Insolvency Service said.
‘Misleading the public’
The investigation discovered that, after taking money from victims of both the Sampson and Fabcourt scams, the group of companies would make a handful of monthly interest payments on their investments before “going silent and leaving investors substantially out of pocket”.
The properties presented in the promotional materials were owned by unrelated entities, and the videos promoting the schemes had been cloned.
Edna Okhiria, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “It is undeniably in the public interest for these companies to be prevented from continuing to trade, which will enable the Official Receiver to carry out further investigations into the activities of the companies to establish the extent of its liabilities, the position as regards any assets, the whereabouts and conduct of the directors and any other culpable parties.
“These companies operated a fraudulent scheme whereby they mislead the public, falsely claiming that the Texmoore and Fabcourt investment schemes were regulated to provide the veneer that funds invested were protected when in fact they were not. These claims induced investors to invest substantial sums. The companies then failed to make more than a few monthly interest payments, leaving investors substantially out of pocket.
“The Insolvency Service, alongside our partner agencies, continues to investigate schemes such as these and to pursue enforcement against those responsible for facilitating them.”
