The FSCS said it was trying to determine whether it was able to pay compensation to TailorMade clients who had lost money in such schemes as Green Oil Plantations and Harlequin Hotels and Resorts.
As reported, Harlequin went into administration last April, in the wake of problems that began in January 2013, after the UK's Financial Services Authority issued an alert warning about the high number of investors, particularly those using SIPPS, invested in a Harlequin property fund. Since then Harlequin has been fighting a costly court case with investors who believe they are owed money they invested in its Buccament Bay Resort in Barbados, and has been the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation.
Green Oil Plantations aimed to produce so-called "green" biofuel oil on an Australian plantation, but ran into difficulties early on and went into administration last year.
Although TailorMade Independent is in creditors voluntary liquidation, the FSCS has not yet declared it in default, and for this reason, it is trying to determine the extent to which it may be liable for any of the losses its customers have suffered, the FSCS said yesterday, in a statement on its website.
It was not immediately known how much TailorMade’s clients would receive if the company were declared in default and the compensation scheme’s experts determined that their claims were valid.
In its statement, the FSCS urged any customers of TailorMade Independent who wished to register a claim to get in touch, at this address.
TailorMade went into creditors' voluntary liquidation last October, when Paul Finnity and Dilip Dattani of Baker Tilly were named joint liquidators.
Catalyst investors in Malta 'able to claim'
In a separate announcement last Friday, the FSCS said it would begin to invite against another UK company, London-based Catalyst Investment Group Ltd, by the end of March, including investors who received advice from independent financial advisers based in Malta. The FSCS said that its analysis of Catalyst's role as a distributor of ARM Asset Backed Securities had indicted that Catalyst "may be liable for losses in many cases".
"Following an investigation into how the ARM bonds were distributed and sold in Malta, [the] FSCS is satisfied that investors who dealt with Maltese IFAs will be able to claim against Catalyst in the same way as investors who dealt with UK IFAs," the FSCS said.
According to the FSCS, Catalyst was the primary distributor of ARM’s bonds in the UK, marketing them to investment intermediaries and IFAs who in turn promoted and sold them to retail investors. Last October Catalyst was declared in default, and the FCA revealed that it had censured Catalyst for breaching regulatory principles when promoting and distributing bonds offered by ARM.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme was established in 2000 to ensure that clients of UK authorised financial services businesses will receive compensation in the event that the company is unable to meet claims made against it. It is funded by a levy on such "authorised" firms.
