MH Carbon: Another boiler room scam?

497 thoughts on “MH Carbon: Another boiler room scam?”

1. From Observer Money on MH Carbon:

   “It is also worth looking at the founders and directors of these operations. Several directors behind these organisations have led a chequered corporate life. Take MH Carbon, for example, which claims on its website to be the ‘industry leader’.

   Two of MH Carbon’s directors, David James White and Richard James Beese, were executive directors of Montague Pitman Stockbrokers, the appointed representative of Falcon Securities. Falcon Securities was censured by the FSA for Montague Pitman’s poor sales practices during a period when Beese was head of retail and client relationships. The firm would have been fined £240,000 in January 2010 but for the fact that it sought administration.”

   http://www.moneyobserver.com/issue/features/dont-fall-prey-carbon-credulity

2. I feel sorry for those poor people that appear to have been scammed by MH Carbon.

   But exactly who the hell is Richard Clark??

   How come someone who appears to have had no track record in this business suddenly gets to be writing lengthy ‘editorials’ for the Financial Times? How many people bought into MH Carbon on the basis of seeing MH’s name appearing as an apparent ‘expert’ in the FT? How come there was no explanation from the FT as to exactly who Clark was, or what kind of a track record he could demonstrate?

   I smell a rat: I think investors might well ask the FT some questions about what was the basis for giving this massive puff-piece to Clark and his mates.

   Ironically, Clark’s name also came up a few weeks after the FT article on the Spear’s website (“An essential resource for High Net Worths”) entitled ‘Carbon Credits: Investment Must-Have or Boiler-Room Scam?’:

   “Richard Clark, senior consultant with MH Carbon (an FSA-authorised trader), cites as an example a paper mill in Russia that used its waste to generate electricity through a biomass project: ‘The project was assessed and given VCS status, and the credits were awarded. Canny investors were able to buy these credits at a price as low as £3.01 and within the year had exited to a strategic partner at £4.04, making a smooth 34 per cent profit.” http://archive.today/34n0N

   Maybe Clark got this new opportunity to puff his company to a key client group on the back of his FT article. Or maybe someone at Spears was sending a little coded warning about this man and his real interests in fast, “smooth” profits….

   Canny, indeed.

3. @WD – Thanks for this. I saw the article in Money Observer, but when I looked up David White and Richard Beese on duedil.com, they are directors of a company called Bwcarbon. I found out the following about possible links between the two companies, Bwcarbon and MH Carbon:

   – Bwcarbon’s registered address is Hendford Manor, Yeovil, Somerset, BA20 1UN.

   – MH Carbon’s “disclaimer” page on its website states that MH Carbon’s registered address is Hendford Manor, Yeovil, Somerset, BA20 1UN. (I assume that this is an old address, the current registered address is 3rd Floor, Peek House, 20 Eastcheap, London, EC3M 1EB.)

   But, there are 235 companies registered at Hendford Manor in Yeovil, so that’s not necessarily proof of a link between the two companies. (Incidentally, there are 109 companies registered at the same postcode as MH Carbon, which suggests that the company’s claim on its website about “spacious offices in the City of London” may be something of an exaggeration.)

   – David White and Richard Beese were also directors of a company called B W Carbon Nominees Ltd before the company was dissolved in 2012.

   – By a strange coincidence, on 13 April 2011, Jonathan Cocks and Gavin Manerowski, then-directors of MH Carbon, set up a company called MH Carbon Nominees Ltd. When he took over MH Carbon in October 2012, Jeffrey Razaq also took over MH Carbon Nominees.

4. @Z Witness – Thanks. You’re right, the Financial Times should have made more clear that the article was written by a carbon broker and not by a journalist. The FT article does state that “Richard Clark is senior consultant at MH Carbon”. There is no explanation that MH Carbon is a company set up to sell carbon credits and that explanation of who Clark is comes only at the end of the article, which is spread over five pages – on the previous four pages there is no mention whatsoever of who Clark is.

   The article on Spear’s illustrates your point, that people perhaps take Clark seriously because of his article in the FT. The information about the Russian pulp mill is taken directly from Clark’s FT article (without attribution). (More details about the Russian pulp mill project would be very interesting…)

   But the bit in the Spear’s article about FSA deciding “whether to designate a carbon credit broker as authorised depends on whether it offers credits that are VCS (verified carbon standard) or gold standard (meaning that the clean energy project will have a positive effect on the local community)” is pure fiction.

   As Clark explains on page 4 of his FT piece,

   It is widely known that the spot trading of commodities is unregulated by the FSA and, as carbon credits are classed as commodities, it follows that the spot trading of carbon credits falls within that category.

   Similarly Spear’s comment about MH Carbon being “an FSA-authorised trader” is not true. MH Carbon’s Terms of Business states that,

   Neither we [i.e. MH Carbon] nor MH Carbon Nominees Ltd are authorised or regulated by the Financial Services Authority and the Transactions contemplated by this Agreement are not regulated activities for the purposes of the rules of the Financial Services Authority.

5. Can someone please attempt to clarify this situation, I purchased credits through MH Carbon and I am confused?

   I watched the BBC program and completed some research into Mr Hanrahan’s from Climate Care’s statement about the credits being worth less than £1. I went onto Climate Care’s website if you try to purchase credits through this link, Climate Care sell credits for £7.50; which is more than my purchase price from MH Carbon.

   Help please.

6. http://www.climatecare.org/home.aspx

7. My mum has invested 40,000 pounds into these ver’s from a company called diffractions . they gave the old usual delay tactics baffling her with jargon and I knew they would disappear of the radar.. I knew exactly when they would do it as they said my mum could not retrieve her money, maybe near the Christmas period . They have now left their offices and apparently moved to Dubai and the broker she was dealing with cant be contacted ! We received a letter a few weeks ago stating that diffractions have passed over the dealings with this mh- carbon , she has been to their office which is in London and active . We have been led down so many avenues and not sure what to believe or where her money actually is or how much any of it is worth ! These people are conniving and tactical people and can make people feel at ease especially vulnerable people who will easily believe their lies . Do you think we’re being led up the garden path or will this just eventually pan itself out ? Would love some advice .

8. I have made three purchases of VCRs from MHCarbons.Like the reports I have now seen of others I have expirenced long periods of no replies to calls or emails. I was called by an Adam Smith in October and by a Paul Farthing recently, each claiming to be ‘looking after’ my portfolio. They each gave optimistic but differing predictions of’exit’dates and prices for my carbon credits, and sought further funds to facilitate a prompt exit of one holding by buying into another. I have long since concluded they are a bunch of crooks.
   How is it that such fraudsters are still permitted to be operating.They should be in prison. Why hasn’t the FSA/Met police closed them down?

9. @George Sampson – Thanks very much for this. I’m not surprised you are confused. I’ve written to Edward Hanrahan to ask him how he justifies charging £7.50 for something that he says should be sold at less than £1. When I get a response I’ll post it on REDD-Monitor with a link to the post from this comments thread.

10. Hmmm I too have had the same experience as Edward. Got a call from MH Carbon saying the Coalition gov had proposed draconian restrictions on carbon credits and I had a very short window to sell all my portfolio by mid march for a big profit provided I bought more credits to make my holding up to a round number. Payment HAD to be made today. My reuests for them to call, email or just acknowledge all ignored. This must be an illegal scam and ad Hetherngton in the Mail has previously highlighted these companies should be investigated and shut down and directors brought before the courts. Sooner the better I say.

11. @George Sampson – Here’s the response from Climate Care’s Edward Hanrahan about how much a voluntary carbon credit costs.

12. @ Jon

    If MH have been claiming that there is some government-mandated ‘restriction’ on carbon limits (whatever that means) to take effect from mid-March, then that is pure fiction. The truth is much more likely that, probably through secondary, tertiary or many-times-removed trades, MH themselves were scammed into buying carbon credits at what was already a knock-down price, but now they have sunk even lower and they are doing whatever they can to shift them (if they exist at all).

    As you can see from this Reuters article from yesterday, the European Commission itself is now panicking because this week the price of true Certified Emissions Reductions (that is, carbon credits generated by and largely traded within the official EU Emissions Trading Scheme – EU-ETS) dropped to a new all-time low:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/21/us-carbon-price-eu-idUSBRE90K0EQ20130121

    Because the EU-ETS is by far the biggest official and regulated carbon market in the world, the price of VOLUNTARY Emissions Reductions (VERs – the kind that MH Carbon purport to trade in) is heavily dependent on it. Generally, VERs have traded at much lower values than official and tradeable CERs.

    Note this from another (perhaps more honest) carbon trader, TFS Green, about VERs:

    “VER credits are not liquid credits and do not have a transparent and clear market for exchange and therefore may not be suitable for short term or speculative activity.”

    http://www.tfsgreen.com/global-markets/voluntary-emissions-reductions/

    As carbon trading is outside the remit of the FSA, seems to me like this is a case for the Fraud Office. God I hate these b*st*rds…

13. Worldwide Commodities -Award winning brokerage – have passed [sold?] their database of carbon clients to MH-Carbon.
    They have now disappeared, no phones answered and Website permanently down. Managing Director Lee Thompson announced to clients in a letter dated 14 Jan 2013, that he would like to make them aware of a recent ‘update’ on the Carbon Credit Trading Account that they have/had with them. ‘As part of the negotiations between our companies it has been agreed that MH-Carbon will take over our portfolio in full.
    So they have dumped everything and done a runner… at least they gave out MH-Carbons phone number…

14. personally I think people who want to cash in on carbon credits deserve to loose their money.
    I feel 0 sympathy for them. Carbon credits are a scam,
    a get rich quick fantasy at the expense of every person on the planet.

15. I too have had the same experience as Jon & Edward. Bought 4000 carbon credits in August 2012 on being told by James Hoile that there was an exit strategy in place and I would be able to sell almost immediately at a profit of 86p per credit. After parting with my hard earned cash I started getting the unanswered e-mails and telephone calls, then James Hoile was not available because he was on his honeymoon. When he returned I was told that M H Carbon was in discussions with three companies and an exit should have been in place by mid to late October 2012 at an even bigger profit. In early November after numerous telephone calls I was told by Jake Hamilton that he was now responsible for my account as James Hoile had left the company and had told me lies as there was no exit in place until August 2014 but if I invested in another 2000 credits at £6 of another project then there was an exit strategy in place for Jan/Feb 2013 and the company involved would take both sets of credits at £7+ but fortunately I did not fall for that one. Then on 14th January I was contacted by Adam Smith who stated that he was “Head of UK Operations”, he told me that there was an exit strategy in place for the 16th Feb at £6.75 but to qualify I would have to buy another 1000 credits from his director (who was doing this out of the goodness of his heart)at £6 per credit or alternatively I could buy 6000 credits from his director. A quick bit of arithmetic will tell you that the director stood to lose £750 or £4500 on these deals and that was just on my transaction not to mention the other customers being offered the same deal (What a nice guy). I suggested he could lend me a 1000 credits in order for me to qualify and then take his money after the exit had taken place, thereby he would not lose and I would make a healthy profit on my 4000 credits but this could not be done because everything had to be LEGAL and above board. Needless to say, I am still thinking about this offer.

    These people should be locked up and the key thrown away, it is unbelievable that this could happen in this country and is still happening as I write. The government is telling us that carbon neutral is the way forward and this is what influenced me to make an investment. Are they going to compensate us for their lack of protection. I also think the Financial Times has a lot to answer for as a result of their article by Richard Clark, are they now prepared to do an article on the mal practice of these fraudulent companies and get Richard Clark to answer the accusations that have been made on this site.
    I have reported the mis-selling to the FSA on two occasions and they have now directed me to http://www.nfib.police.uk and Action Fraud tel.0300 1232040. Trading Standards and TV programmes such as “Rip Off Britain” and you’ve been scammed may also help.

16. @Carl

    You ask “Do you think we’re being led up the garden path or will this just eventually pan itself out itself”?

    Whatever MH Carbon are up to, as far as I am aware nobody seriously expects there to be a revival of the carbon markets or an increase in VER/CER prices any time soon, if ever.

    It is all linked to political negotiations at the European Union level which in turn is linked to the UN climate negotiations. The EU discussions are a mess; under pressure from heavily polluting industries and their representative governments, historically far too many carbon credits have been issued (especially at a time when industry has been contracting due to the recession) which has flooded the market and sent carbon credit prices into a downward dive.

    Worse still for global carbon credit markets, the UN climate negotiations which took place last December basically postponed any further discussions on a new international convention to limit carbon emissions until the end of 2015, with any new agreement not to come into force until 2020 at the earliest. This means that there are unlikely to be many new statutory restrictions on carbon emissions until then, which means no new emissions cap-and-trade schemes like the EU-ETS, and therefore no extra demand for carbon credits. No demand, no value…

    As REDD-Monitor noted, analyst Per Likander from UBS bank pointed out earlier this month that “with current rules (EU-)ETS won’t work until 2045, thus carbon is worthless. With the current emissions cap – 1.74 percent reduction per year – the ETS will be long each year until 2025 and it will take until 2045 before the current 1.5 billion tons surplus inventory has been eliminated”.

    My guess is that it will never “pan out” for either official CERs or Voluntray ERs, and, even after 2020, the carbon markets will not recover. The whole point about the establishment of markets in carbon credits was to try and use it as a means of preventing climate change. It is much more widely accepted now that this has not worked. Even Lord Browne, former Chairman of BP and once one of the leading advocates in favour of carbon markets, has since concluded that carbon markets will not prevent climate change. By 2020, if we are to believe the scientific projections, we are likely to be seeing wider impacts of climate change already occurring, and governments will be looking for different ways of tackling the problem.

    Probably ultimately (but maybe not for some years yet) we will move towards a system of taxing carbon. Then carbon markets (or what’s left of them) will collapse altogether, and carbon credits will be truly worthless.

    By the way, I note that there has been no response from MH Carbon itself to this posting – does that tell us something, perhaps?

17. Thanks Richard
    The helpline no for action fraud was really helpful and the police are now informed.
    We need as many as possible to report this company to the Fraud Police so they can move on this con man operation. Still no replies for a broker to call back despite telephone messages, emails and texts!

18. @Bob Telford – Thanks for this. Here’s a link to the Action Fraud website: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/, should you wish to report this as a possible fraud.

    I wrote about Worldwide Commodities in July 2012, asking whether they are “another carbon credit boiler room?”.

    Worldwide Commodities website currently shows the following message (it’s been like that for the past three hours):

    

19. Agree with Jon above. I’m a “victim” as well, and will be reporting Worldwide Commodities to the police. The more people do this, the better chance we may have of getting some compensation. I suspect MH Carbon are just the same – fraudsters. How long before they disappear as well? The police should start investigating them now while they can still get hold of them easily.

20. The entire voluntary market in carbon credits is rife with con artists and charlatans.To all of you who have bought voluntary market carbon credits , I can assure you you have purchased the same at most likely 5 to 10 times their true value.Essentially , you have been fed a pack of lies and that old emotion greed has been totally manipulated , unfortunately not in your favour.You have been conned , fleeced and your best bet is to form an action group , report the scamsters asap to the SFO , London Economic Crime unit etc. There is no way you will get your hard earned money back. Why ? it has most likely been spent on cocaine , hookers , 5 star hotels and restuarants , fast cars and booze. Sorry to inform you of this,however I am dealing in reality here .Your best bet is to put the entire costly and sad affair down to experience and don,t ever be taken in again by strangers over the telephone, even if they do have all the answers etc to your questions. These telephone salesman are highly refined and well tuned conmen who know exactly how to build up false hopes and how to expolit human greed.What I find alarming,indeed bordering on disturbing is the simple fact that the authorities , yes those in place to protect us from criminals , are always too late to do something , and this has been the case for over 30 years , wine , art champagne , landbanking , diamonds , teak plantations , biofuels , ostriches , whisky , rare coins , Reg S stock-OTC-BB…. the list is endless and most likely exceeds in financial terms well over half a billion pounds. By anyone,s standards thats a lot of money to lose to crime. Today , the main telephone investment scams are investing in care homes , student accomodation , and car parking units …… yes thats whats going on now , so beware if you get a call …..

21. To David Blythe:

    I think it’s misguided to report greed on the part of people who’ve been sold carbon offset investments.

    I’m fresh from opening a letter from my bank (I won’t name it, but it’s 43.4% owned by Her Majesty’s Government), warning me that the interest rate on my deposit account is about to decline to a tenth of one percent per annum.

    So, while the Bank of England is presiding over a currency losing value at a rate of several percent a year (which, incidentally, lessens the challenge of the state in nominally paying back money it has borrowed and splurged), fully-regulated, and in some cases significantly government-owned, banks endeavour to use our money for negligible nominal interest, which, in most cases, will, in no small part, be confiscated by HMRC.

    Thus, for the ordinary saver/investor, the level of greed within is surely less than that of the environment in which he operates. It’s not surprising if he is persuaded to place a portion of his wealth in an “investment” that he’s been led to think offers 5 to 10% above inflation, to offset the negative real growth achieved by the remainder. Nor do I see any reason, other than due diligence failure, to censure him for doing so.

22. Chris (Lang),

    Perhaps you can place a link to the following excellent website on your main page on Carbon Credit scams. More people should be made aware of this.
    http://carbontradescam.wordpress.com/

23. Hi Chris,
    I have bought into four carbon credit projects through another London-based company, New Frontier Advisory. On 31st January, the company ceased to trade and posted a letter on Google from the CEO Charles Denbigh, that explained that all NFA’s clients would now be advised by Hennessey Associates, a Cyprus-based consultation service. We were also told that Hennessey would handle all exit strategies. I have contacted Hennessey and had two conversations with a senior adviser who has stated that my credits can be sold but I would be required to pay an up front consultancy fee of £1950! I cannot conduct any meaningful due diligence as this is a company whose HQ is on an ‘off-shore’ island. Have any other NFA clients had the smae experience?

24. Hmmm. This is a worrying development. Who holds your carbon credits? I think there are two; Eco-Synergies and Carbon-X. You might want to consider contacting Carbon-Expert.com and asking them what they think.

    I am unsure whether they (NFA) can just transfer your account to Hennessey Associates if you hold credits in a Nominee Account.

    The value of your investment might not be worth anything but if you can bring yourself to trust anyone in this complex game then look up Carbon-Expert and see what they can offer you.

    MH-Carbon…….I am still uncertain if they are a bone fide company or not. They seem upbeat about exit strategies but time will tell. Anyone tell me if the Carbon Credit regulation changes from 6th April 2013??

25. @Jon – Thanks for this. I have a couple of questions for you:

    1. Why do you think you can trust “Carbon-Expert”? This is another company selling carbon credits as investments.

    2. What carbon credit regulation are you talking about that may or may not change on 6 April 2013? Who told you about the possible change in regulation?

26. Hi Chris,

    I am not able to say categorically that one can trust Carbon Expert but if you visit their website you can see all the names and faces of their team and the projects they have been involved with. I guess that this suggests that they are open otherwise they would not put faces of individuals on the website…I wouldn’t if I were dishonest but accept this may just be an added level of sophistication on their part.

    I have not had any dealing with them but it seems they work in the Middle East (offices in London and Spain) and have dealt with Hotel chains in Dubai and UAE. Perhaps someone could provide us all with due diligence work on them.

    The answer to your second question was MH Carbon. It appears to me this is quite a large operation with many employees. As yet one cannot tell if they are bone fide and without more individuals (ie investors) reporting problems or failures by them it is impossible to tell yet. I gather (from them) that there will be some regulation of the carbon credit market from April but have not been able to find anything to confirm this.

    Perhaps individuals who have had a good experience should post comments. It is a confusing picture.

27. @Bill Kelly – I’m sorry to hear about this. I would advise contacting Action Fraud.

    On 8 February 2013, I did a post explaining what to do if you think you’ve been scammed. The short version is: Contact Action Fraud, either via their website or by ringing them up on 0300 123 2040.

    

28. I had an account with Diffraction and purchased around 7K worth of carbon credit. My account has now been moved to MH Carbon. I am trying to get my money out but I have been told by Adam Smith of MH to purchase minimum 4K worth of CER credit from them and then only in the month of April all my credits will be sold and then I can exit.

    Please what should I do to get my money back? Should I put in 4K more?

    THANKS

29. @Sam

    The advice seems to be to contact the Action Fraud Hotline, details above, as soon as possible, especially if you are being encouraged to invest MORE money before your existing investments can be liquidated.

    Note that there is NO specific change happening in the carbon markets from April 6th that would justify MH Carbon (or any other carbon trader for that matter) wanting to delay investors’ exit until after then. (There are some slight technical changes happening in relation to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme from the end of April, but these are not at all relevant to the voluntary carbon credit markets that MH carbon claims to be involved in). There are NO proposed new regulations to come into effect, and remember above all that MH is dealing in VOLUNTARY carbon credits, over which there is basically no regulation whatsoever.

    More likely, it is just a ploy to try and get MH Carbon past their financial end of year, or possibly some kind of scam linked to this, or just to buy themselves more time to make an ‘exit’ themselves, with more investors’ money in the bank.

30. MH Carbon hve been trying to get me to buy some CRTs in order for them to execute an exit for my VERs. They started off asking for 30K+ then went down to 10K and finally 3.6K. I have checked this link http://www.climateactionreserve.org/resources/faqs/#section_10 which states the CRTs are not suitable for private investors. Has nthis approach been made to anyone else?

31. Hi Dbinny,

    How interesting. I think they might be trying to sell credits to new blood in order for them (MH) to give money back to those who wish to sell. Ponsi scheme it may be. Who did you speak to at MH?

    As far as I am aware CRTs are not for private investors so I have no idea what they can be trying now!

    I am just astonished that Action Fraud have not mobilised the City of London police to raid the place and look at the books. I guess they know that they are selling a worthless product because they have no exit strategy and in the process have deceived and lied to many. It has, if this is the business model, got to be an illegal activity.

32. Hi I have been looking into MH Carbon quite recently here is a direct line to a Frank Davies 0207 090 7283, some of my readers have been contacted by them trying to retrade them on carbon based on the fact they can sell them on for them. As we all know this is just to hook the unaware investor in I strongly advise anyone to stay away from the carbon market, just to confirm companies can buy CER’s for around £2.00 and then resell them for 4 times as much they do the same with ver also, however they fail to tell investors that they have more chance of the prime minister popping around for coffee than to sell them, do your selves a favour if you are going to invest in this market take half your hard earned money into the back garden put it in a pile and set fire to it then take the other half and go and buy some so at least your offsetting it, after all is that not what the government telling us to do here, as long as you pay a little fee you can pollute. Some how i do not think m other nature cares if we are fined or not if we pollute it will have a long term effect. Please feel free to visit http://www.investorrecomendations.co.uk for the sole purpose of investigating scammers and boiler rooms for investors. Just like to say what a fantastic site

33. Hi Chris,
    Thanks for your reply. I do know the carbon credits I purchased are registered in my name. This has been confirmed by the solicitors I bought them through. Is there literally no way an indivdual can get to sell carbon credits? I also own CARs regisered through the Californian Carbon Exchange.Does the same apply to them?

34. I have been speaking to a “Paul Farthing”.

35. It looks like another company (VER Exit) has been set up to maybe scam us victims. I have purchased credits from a company now dissolved. My credits are registered with CNI (Carbon Neutral Investments). Last week I got a call from this newly set up company ‘VER Exit’ who are a branch of OPES Capital Investment. They say they have been contacted by CNI to see if they can help all the individuals registered with CNI that have these credits and no exit strategy. OPES apparrently do not normally deal with individuals only companies and they are offering an exit strategy for individuals over the coming year to get their money back. The catch? They sell credits to companies at £5.00 each which represents a loss for me so to recoup the loss they will sell me 1000 credits at £2.90 to bring my average cost to around £5.00. They say they purchase credits at £2.50 and the extra 40p is to cover their admin costs. Obviously they make no money on the deal when they sell all credits but their aim is that after the return of my money on the credits they hope to interest me in their other products where they do deal with for individuals (i.e. gold, silver, rare earth metals etc).
    Thing is that they say they are just (today) completing their first exit since they set up in January. That means there should be some happy individuals out there who will be getting their money back.
    Anyone heard of such a person or anyone who has already bought into the idea of getting their money back with VER Exit.

36. Hi Phil, VER Exit(s) rang me in December with exactly the same patter. buy from them a 1000 at 2.90 to average down my purchase costs. I didn’t show much enthusiasm and the have not rung me since. Stay clear is my advice.

37. Tony Hetherington at the Financial Mail on Sunday looks into MH Carbon’s claims here: “Carbon credit 20% profit boast from MH Carbon Limited that went up in smoke”.

    Hetherington spoke to MH Carbon’s director Jeffrey Razaq, after T.D. got in touch with Hetherington. After Hetherington had spoken to Razaq, Razaq agreed to repay T.D.’s £9,960 “investment”.

    Hetherington asked about the legislation that MH Carbon claims is coming in April 2013:

    Well, I asked, what about the idea that the Government was going to force companies to buy carbon credits from investors like you? Razaq came up with an announcement made last June, but he had the honesty to admit that all this does is make major companies report their greenhouse gas emissions. By no stretch of the imagination does it force them to buy credits.

    My advice if you have handed over any money to MH Carbon is to contact Action Fraud – with a copy to Tony Hetherington (experts@thisismoney.co.uk).

38. Hi Everyone,
    Been reading all your comments with interest. I have been talking to a Paul Keane at MH Carbon who wants me to invest a further 7k with him to buy CRTs in order to exit my VERs that I bought through World Carbon, just like in Dbinny’s case. His patter is buy now and we’ll exit you in April with a profit. He wanted me to send him proof of id (copy of passport) which I said I’d do if he sent me his in return. His reply was:
    “With regards my ID, I am not able to disclose that as I’m sure you are aware. It is company policy that staff and brokers must not disclose personal contact information, mobiles or identification. In accordance with our in house compliance procedures. I am employed by the company and you are now a client of the company so you know exactly who you are dealing with and the fantastic reputation MH Carbon has in this market.”

    Now would anybody honest behave like that? I have no idea who I am dealing with, just a voice over the phone who wants me to give him money. I wish he had agreed to give me a copy of his passport so that I could give it to the Fraud police if and when MH Carbon disappear just like World Carbon did. At least the police would have some id (if not fake) to work with.

    On another point, World Carbon “sold” my investment portfolio to MH Carbon without contacting me for permission prior to disappearing. That’s how I became a “client” of MH Carbon. Was this just a tactic to avoid the police? And how can MH Carbon simply “buy” this information? Surely this is a breach of the Data Protection Act? This must be an illegal activity in its own right, and should be investigated before MH Carbon disappear too. Anybody with further info on this aspect?

39. The regulation change in April that MH Carbon is probably talking about is the UK mandatory carbon reporting for companies – it is reporting only and does not force companies to offset their GHG emissions with carbon credits. The regulation is due to go through Parliament after Easter.

40. I have been following this discussion board close. I bought VER carbon credits worth little over 6000 Pounds. I suppose to keep them between 12-18 months before benefitting from them. More than two years have gone by and no surprise for you all, I am sitting still on them.
    Back in August I had a phone call from one of the brokers, telling me that they are ´exploding`. I asumed that they were in a profit and wanted to sell. For weeks I could not get hold on MH Carbon either by phone or email.
    They admitted that my portfolio was negleceted but I was told that by the end of March 2013 there will be an exit strategy. The recent conversation with Paul Keane wasn´t very promising. I am wishing that I am wrong but we will sitting on our Carbon Credits for a very long time.

41. hi i called mh-carbon this morning got through and asked to speak to frank davies .i was told he was not available and would call back .since then i am calling them on all the numbers i have and they are either dead .unavailable or engaged other names i had contact with were blake, jake ,steven jones when i asked to speak to any of them they where not available .any news or advice .please help if anyone gets to make any contact with them please let me know .

42. i am also unable to log into my account .after clicking the password link i have not received an email to reset my password

43. Hello akbar,

    I know how you are feeling. I couldn´t login either in my account at MH Carbon. Some of the phone numbers from MH Carbon are,02070907288, 02070907284.
    There is an expression: The rats are leaving the sinking ship! The carbon credit market has failed and MH Carbon knows that.I recommend that you report MH Carbon to actionfraud.

44. Hi everyone I have spoken to someone called jeff . He has sacked a broker I’ve been dealing with as he was misinforming me about exit dates! I have 40 thousand pounds invested I gave a further 10 thousand to exit . I’ve been told this is all wrong I’m devastated as this is all my money I have! Spoke to this jeff who honestly gave it to me straight , it all depends on what the government say in April ! It’s very possible he says that all my money has gone ! All I can suggest is you ride it out till April ! Till then this is all the info your going to get

45. Comment to Milan C

    I have had similiar experiences. I was aproached by Clark Carbon Capital, based in Switzerland. They knew that I have been holding Carbon credits with MH Carbon and that they had difficulties to sell them.
    The offer was if I bought an additional carbon credits (2000 Pounds)I would qualify for a corporate sale by the end of February 2013.

    According to the Swiss Financial Authorities, Clark Carbon Capital is not registered in Switzerland and has no authorisation to sell finacial products.
    Edgebrook Carbon Investment based in Germany but Administration also in Switzerland called me last week and offered 8 pounds for my VERs. Nearly the double price I paid through MH Carbon. The hook: you have to pay several hundreds of Pounds upfront before the deal is going to be completed. They also knew that I was holding carbon credits with MH Carbon.
    Conclusion: These small carbon credits cowboys do communicate amongst each other, maybe these are the same people. As you mentioned Milan C, do we know who is behind the voice on the phone.

    The carbon credit market has failed to deliver as an investment for individuals. Many people have lost a lot of money and these companies are very inventive and change their strategy,they try to “help” you but they just want to get more money out from you. BE AWARE!

46. Hi Art,

    Looks like they have flown the nest over the weekend and they are not waiting for April. Tel no I was using 0207929 6141 last week is now is not recognised and the other numbers are not working.

    I am not convinced Action Fraud will do anything actually (I have reported MH Carbon to them). I have looked at their offices in Peek House and I spoke to the doorman there. He told me he was sick and tired of people calling in to speak to Jeff Razaq and his merry band of conmen.

    I think the investments have gone into someone’s back pocket. If you do hold carbon credits then try to find out the registration number. At least then you can tell yourself you actually bought something. If there is no registration number then you have been deceived, defrauded and robbed of your hard earned money. Do not put any more money into this with ANYONE would be my advice.

47. Hi,

    Just had a quick look at the website and this says the phones are down due to them moving to London Bridge.

    MH-Carbon Ltd
    Stoney Suite
    8 St Thomas Street
    London Bridge
    London
    SE1 9RS

48. 8 St Thomas Street
    London Bridge
    London
    SE1 9RS

    A Google search takes you to the Bunch of Grapes public house, which looks pretty good. Perhaps MH are all in there celebrating??

49. Just after contacting MH Carbon at 14.00 hrs tel no.02079296141.Was speaking to a receptionist.All brokers were busy and to ring later in the afternoon. she informed me that they had not moved to their new offices yet despite new address on their website.According to her she is still working from their old office. Strange.

50. You have to stop believing that there is going to be some government announcement in April that is magically going to change the fact that the carbon credits you have been sold (if they really exist at all) are worthless. It is inconceivable that the bunch of crooks at MH Carbon could know something so significant that absolutely no-one else in the carbon trade had heard about, and on which there has been no government consultation etc etc. If there was any real prospect of the government introducing any new policies in April, then the market would have already reacted to it.

    This ‘April announcement’ is a total myth, and seemingly purposely devised to try and get people to part with more money for some fictional ‘exit strategy’.

    Part with no money, do nothing but report the company to the Action Fraud Hotline.

    Have you all thought about trying to organise a mass-visitation to MH’s office? (I mean the existing one, not 8 St Thomas St, which you can get a very good view of on GoogleMaps Streetview, and looks very much like a residential house to me).

51. Has anyone been approached by a Jeff Khan of ASJ International or George Brown of Investment Angels regarding their Carbon Credits? Do you know anything about a European Database for VERs?

52. I MANAGED TO GET THROUGH TO MH-CARBON ON MONDAY AFTER A VERY STRESS FULL WEEKEND AS THERE PHONE LINES WERE ALL DEAD OR UNRECOGNISED .I ASKED WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS AND THEY DENIED THAT THERE WAS A ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE LINES .I ASKED TO SPEAK TO FRANK WHO WAS UNAVAILABLE AT THE TIME AND WOULD CALL BACK .STILL WAITING

53. Another broking firm has entered the fray – Hamilton Carter – promising to get me an exit. The person contacting me was Spencer George who previously worked for Diffraction Investments and sold me CCs in a Hyundai project (how thick skinned these people are). I have sent them details of my holdings and I await developments!!

54. My MH Carbon story (so far)…

    Bought some VERs ~12-18 months ago at £3 – £5 then bought more last December with a guaranteed exit this month (in at £6, exit at £9.50) They have verbally told me I have exited these at £8.02 but have not had any paperwork yet.

    Bigger deal is to purchase CERs at £4.75 to add to my original VERs and exit whole lot on 25th March 2013 for £9.25. Exit deal has allegedly been done and MHC are contracted to delivering large bundle of credits to a Brazilian firm working on a large infrastructure project. The deal is I pay up today/Monday and exit money will be in my bank account on 28th March (T+3 from 25th). I have verbally told them I will proceed but am holding fire for now.

    I have visited MHC at Peek House – it is a real company and there were staff there answering the phones as MHC, name on door, carbon brochures in meeting room, etc. (this was in January 2013). I have had some problems getting through to people but not as bad as some people here – I do think firms like this have high staff turnover and it’s easier to say “he’s in a meeting” than “we fired him because he was crap”. I have spoken to them 4 times this week – twice I called them and twice they called me. They did email me about the phone problems and these now appear to be working as normal.

    Having said that, here’s why I am uneasy:

    1. why do I need to stump up more cash in order to sell my existing credits? (sounds like a scam to get more money through the door)
    2. if they can acquire CERs at £4.75, why would the buyer not just buy them at that price? Or indeed MHC staff!
    3. why do I need to lodge funds to buy the CERs before I have paperwork to exit (expecting the “deal fell through at the last minute and you’re stuck with lots of credits” excuse)
    4. they can’t take payment in their regular bank account as they’ve just received a couple of large payments from overseas that are blocking it pending money laundering checks. They will send the exit bank account details today.

55. Hello Spice Boy,

    Sounds very obscur to me. I have had a similar offer from Carbon-ex in Luxemburg. MH Carbon and Carbon-ex used to work together but seperated.

    As I have mentioned in above, I bought VER Carbon credits 1250/4.95 each.
    According to MH Carbon they are little worth now. Carbon-ex offered me to surrender my old VER if I bought an additional CER about 2.50 each insteaed of 4.75. I suppose to pour another 3200 Pounds in. CER are more liquid and easier to sell.

    I did a little research. I asked the EEX (European Energy Exchange)where CER are officially traded. Currently CER futures are worth € 0.33. You can go on their website and can follow the CER spot price on their chart.

    How can MH Carbon or any other carbon trader make offer of 4.75 Pounds?
    How is this price justified?

56. Hi All,
    I have been reading this thread with interest since I am too an investor with MH-Carbon to the sum of £10K. I too last year was promised an exit strategy beginning of March 2013, but have had nothing and have found it impossible to get hold of any of the brokers mine in particular (Frank Davies). I have now received a letter from Jeff Razaq who has also now phoned me telling me he is the new owner of MH-Carbon. He also told me that all the brokers have now been sacked and MH-Carbon are no longer selling carbon credits to individual investors, instead they are contacting all the clients with a view point to sell clients carbon credits to businesses as part of carbon offsetting this could take 6-12 months. Has anyone else been told this, can anyone confirm that MH-Carbon are no longer selling carbon credits to the general public ? Does anyone have any information on Jeff Razaq ? Is this yet another potential scam ? Looking forward to here other people’s views on this.

57. frank has been sacked !I’m in exactly the same boat I’ve been told exactly the same as yourself ! Ie jeff razzaq has told me he can’t sell to the joe public so is trying to sell to businesses also he has invested a large amount himself so he is keen to sell the credits ! Jeff seems a lot more honest than all the brokers I have dealt with . But I’m still unconvinced at everything I hear, I’m still in limbo wether to think this is all a con,or I will get my money back . He apparently has sacked his whole office and recruited a small team together to sell these credits . All I can do is hope everything will come good and people dont lose substancial amounts of money !

58. Just spoke to my broker at MHC (Adam Jones). Apparently everything is now clear to start processing an exit on Monday 18th! I said that I would need to see the paperwork first and he said they would start preparing it on Monday and it would need to be signed by me and countersigned by a bank manager/policeman/doctor/etc. by the 20th in order to process the trade on Monday 25th. Has anyone here had an exit and had to go through formalities like this? Adam said it was because they are now working on large corporate transactions that are very large in size and I am only a small participant in a big transaction.

59. What seems apparent to me is there’s a lot of negative stories but so far I have NOT found ONE positive.
    ABSOLUTELY DO NOT PAY ANY MORE MONEY FOR AN EXIT!
    I purchased my my first ver’s via Carbonex who I see have a familiar German address Kurfurstendamm 21, 10719. I will expand later…
    Adam Capaldi was the guy who pleasantly sold me, well lets just say ten’s of £thousands of credits and 2 exits but these were reinvested!
    Promises were exits in 6 – 12 months but never occurred in cash.
    Around Sept? 2012 Adam called asking if I would buy some client VER’s – “doing him a favor, he needs the money fast!”. I did not buy! Now some months of silence, a change of Director and i think a few knocks on the door. Then a call from Jake November “Tencc, how u doing I’m Jake, taking over your ‘portfolio’ blah blah blah… £25k invested will see you exit by Feb” for about £7?
    I confess to thinking on it but past experience of being scammed told me this smelled similar so I resisted good money after bad scenario.
    I “popped in” to see MH Feb 2013 and spoke with Frank, having been very lucky to collar one of the guys while in reception, he said the exit never happened and didn’t know why Jake would suggest such numbers!
    They would see me out come April.
    NEXT… Call from Jake “Hey Tencc, how you doing blah blah blah.” Another offer of investing to get out but he wasn’t sure how many credits I held! Me – “Jake, go and decide how many credits I have and call me back please”
    Next I talk to Dominic who does a long oratory and I think he is going to help me out of these credits, so plausible and understanding. He is the INSTITUTIONAL client manager…. or some such. Sure he’s gonna help me IF I can invest at institiutional level £50k and he’ll exit me with telephone numbers in my bank by 12th March but that date has now changed to 27th? March but it’s gone cold as I’m away for a while!
    NOW, coincidentally, EDGEBROOK come on to the scene and can exit me for £895! No evidence of the deal they have set up and emails are routed UK, Holand, Germany, calls come from a UK number though the web site gives a German one which didn’t work last time I tried but at least it now rings! 1 month ago, they were from Switzerland but calls came about 5 miles away from their address on the web site, email’s came from Spain!
    Strange don’t you think that EDGEBROOKS address is the same as Carbonex/Colemans, except for a few doors – Kurfurstendamm 96 10709, Berlin, Germany.
    I am making further enquiries about what is possible to do with these credits, any luck I’ll let you know but I cannot see any firm parting with over 8 times the going rate for credits regardless of type, which are now about €1 or less.
    Even the fine for dumping a contract must be more palatable than paying 8 x? Further, how does an outfit set up this year have contracts agreed 2 years ago?
    It’s highly likely that if you, like me have any kind of credits that you paid more than €1 for, you’ve lost the lot and in my case I don’t say that lightly because it’s a lot, lot!
    I have heard horror stories about life savings via other scams and the LAW? Well, they seem powerless, or move to slowly. What appears to be scamming on this scale has been happening since what 2008 when the easy money went! Joe public is making up the difference in the city and for government.
    They both want our money for the same reason, the good times are gone, they have nowhere else to go and someone has to pay.
    Some thoughts….
    1. The only person ever made me money was ME – while helping others..!
    2. Every single time it seemed to good to be true – it was!
    3. Lottery – we have more chance of dying than being millionaires! Still £1 a week is a fair gamble and probably has more chance of winning than the above topic! :-o

60. I would like to think the optimism shown in previous posts is true. I suspect however there may be an element of optimistic denial and that money may have been lost. Having invested myself and experienced much of what has already been said in unrealised promises, I am sceptical. We must begin to build a picture of the extent of all our investments and our experiences. If MH Carbon come good, then the delete button can be happily pressed. If not, then we are at least not isolated. My advice is invest NO more money no matter how the exit is sold to you.

    If you would like to contribute to building up a picture of client experience then e-mail me at

    mhcsorns@btinternet.com

    I will send you a form to collect information that you are willing to provide.
    Your details will be kept completely confidential.

61. Hello,
    I’ve “lost” about £7.5K with MH Carbon and I feel sorry for those that have lost larger amounts, however, when I first read the terms and conditions they almost screamed at me not to invest, but Steve Coles sounded really convincing, very laid back and not pushy at all so I invested, twice.
    This new pillock, Paul Keane, is about as convincing as the Mona Lisa with a beard. If only he had rung me in the first place, I would have smelt a rat.
    So I’m writing the money off and putting it down to experience because I refuse to get screwed up about it.
    Incidentally, this new pile of poo, jeff razaq is a member of Linkedin.
    I shall report this theft to the necessary authorities, but I’m pretty sure that the terms and conditions will provide a get out.

62. There is a difference between Terms and Conditions of business and intentional fraud. If this is a scam, then walking away is exactly what those involved would like everyone to do. Collectively, we can at least take action and maybe even recover some of our hard saved money. See post number 59.

63. hello on the weekend the phones were down i sent an email to hmc pulling no punches . accusing them of being the next company to be in the media for going bankrupt i also received a call from Jeff saying exactly the same thing to me as Simon and Carl . the lines were down as numbers were being transferred to the new address . he said there was a notice on there website informing us of this. the company is no longer selling any carbon credits and their main aim now is to sell on the credits .he did not give a time scale .he did say that there would be two options on the exits .one they could sell credits were you would break even and get your money back or you could ride it out and maybe make some money . all i have heard is negative feedback about this company but if they were a scam why would they still be hanging around unless they are still selling they may be an exception to the rule Jeff gave me his personal email address and mobile number to get updates maybe every 3/4 weeks but he would get in touch if there was any new information , here’s hoping

64. I called MHC this morning to confirm they had moved to their new offices. I went to their old office at Peek House and their name was still above the door but the desks are cleared. I went to their new offices at St Thomas Street and it is a legitimate office (not the pub next door!) but it is really just a serviced facility and there are no staff there.

    I emailed and called Jeff Razaq, the CEO, and he called me back. He said there are no investment staff any more as he doesn’t need them. The company has stopped selling on credits to individuals and he is changing the company to become a carbon offsetting firm, using credits they and customers hold to allow individuals to offset their emissions (like on the BA website). I asked about the planned exit next week but he said that deal has fallen through (surprise, surprise!) and there are no other exits on the table. I asked about the timescale for potential exits and he said that realistically we are talking 6 months plus. He did say that there is an increasing focus on pushing companies and individuals to offset so that may help speed things up.

    Personally, I think we are stuck with the credits for now unless another firm is able to arrange an exit. If you have credits held with CNI rather than MH Nominees you can more easily sell them through another broker.

65. hi i have the same information as robin . but also i received a call to my mobile from a withheld no .he said he was calling from a company the web address he gave was http://www.cbi-gr.com he gave his name as Oscar web .he was informing me about buying into carbon credits and how people were being persuaded to buy more with one of two excuses .one you would need to buy more to qualify for exits or something to do with paying tax .nothing that we dont know already .i cant find this website i may have got the add wrong .he just said not to buy any more credits under any circumstances as the market is already over saturated and is why the value of the credits has gone down .he gave an estimate of 18-24 months before we can expect to see the value go back up . just wondering if anyone else has had a similar call .apart from the above information he did not say what his call was about or what service he was offering .it just sounds a bit suspicious. what was the purpose of this call .he mentioned mh carbon. where did he get my number any update on this matter

66. Hi All. I bought 3,200 VCS in Project 56 (£11,680)in March 2011 with MH Carbon, through persistent Adam Capaldi, then passed to Luke Brown & finally at the end of last year to Frank Davies, with the deal to go through now. Had ‘the call’ that a lot of you had had, last Friday from Jeff Razaq following his change of premises letter a few days earlier. He intimated that the investment is ‘worthless’ at the moment but might be able to do something at the end of the year on a loss basis. Told him that other brokers had been contacting me with offers to exit but to put more money in, and he said don’t ever put any more money in! My credits are held with the custodian, Carbonex (Lux.) so I don’t have to use MH to sell if a deal is possible. Anyone else in Project 56? I have no idea, but all of us in Project 56 could get together to form a marketable holding and do something collectively directly with a company?

67. So, on the 15th Adam Jones is working on big deal to arrange an exit. Monday 18th none of them are needed anymore… and they have stopped selling to individuals, only to companies – so what is different here? that was always the exit model that I was told about. What is different is that they were happy to sell to private investors against false claims and can no longer do so. When presented with an option to give a client an exit, they sold other cheap credits instead (? did they exist) as there was more money in it for them.

68. I am after sending an email to Jeff Razaq so hopefully I will receive some reply soon.Raz is the broker on my account so this must be the boss himself.When I rang earlier today the secretary said all brokers were busy on the phones. Now thats a laugh.

69. To Mark P.

    I am holding VCS in a different project as you. Same as you, Carbon-ex in Luxembourg apparently holding my VCS. They tried to “help” me, if I purchsased another 3200 Pounds of CER with a profit by the end of 2013.

    According to Finance Authority: Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, L-2991 Luxembourg
    Phone : (+352) 26 25 1 -1 Fax: (+352) 26 25 16 01
    Web site : http://www.cssf.lu

    Carbon-ex is not registered with them and has therefore no authorisation to sell or distribute financial products either from or outside Luxembourg. Strange isn´t it? The advise from Jeff Razaq is honest, don´t put any more money in carbon credits!

    The same companies who try to “help” are: Clark Carbon Capital and Edgebrook Carbon Invest (they work together). Keep your money away from them!

70. Hi Art. Thank you for the info. I am treading very carefully and have now emailed all the companies that have been trying to ‘help’ to see what they can come up with. Golden rule….never put anymore money into this voluntary market (roll-over possibly into non voluntary, but do not add)….Equities seem to be a much better bet if you want to speculate or take the dividend income route. I also seem to be on every fine wine broker list and even they look a better bet, but I can’t really see a sensible profit in these. I suppose at least these are tangible!! Thanks, Mark.

71. I too am failing to get any response.
    I bought some credits a year ago, and some more recently, and was told that they were beinmg sold for specified amounts by a smooth talking Scot called JR; these would be paid out in early March; on the strengthy of that I invested a further £20,000 odd in CRTs, for which I do hold a certificate of ownershi[p. The cash was paid to YC Ventures Ltd, who are, apparently, only “providing money collection, anti-money laundering, FSA custody services and delivery of CRTs into my name”. Any comments /queries should be addressed to MH Carbon.

    I am assuminmg that the original holdings were not in fact sold, and will be worth very little, even if I can prove title. I am more hopeful that the certficiate I hold has some value in the long term

72. Good Luck. I have a list of exits provided by MH Carbon (probably ficticious), but other brokers persist in telling me that they have never heard of anyone making money on VCS or CRTs. I’m afraid that all the staff at MH Carbon are just persuasive liars. Never put in more money in please.

    Mark P

73. Same story as everyone else. But don’r give up!

    I invested through a broker (no non-existent) and directwith Carbon-ex. I believe that of you invested through MH Carbon our contract is also with Carbon-ex.

    With Carbon-ex I got in writing an exit plan with a specific date and price. Carbon-ex now admit this was entirely false, but refuse to give me my money back based on the small print in the contract regarding ‘representations’. If a company makes a statement (verbal or written) to induce you falsely into a contract this is known as misrepresentation. My solicitor tells me that the term in contract Carbon-ex are relying on almost certainly is an Unfair Term. If this is accepted then the misrepresentation is sufficient grounds to render the contract null.

    But Carbon-sx solicitors are playing hard ball – slow responses and no compromise. I could take them to court and would probably win – problem is costs and if I lose would have to pay their costs as well – lkely enormous bill. Too high stakes for me.

    But…. if enough investors (where the underlying contract is with Carbon-ex) get together, we can do a class action, and reduce individual risk.
    Alternative, if your investment is under £10k you can take them to the Small Claims Court from next months. No costs are awarded. Do it yourself. Nothing to lose except time. Write to Carbon-ex. Get your solictor to write to them. Keep them bust with potential litigation.

    Post if you are interested in joining me in an action against them

74. Edgebrook wants a 24 hour signed contract and then £895 fee tosell VCRs for over £8. This soundslike a fee scam. Don’t even think of signing up to this one. It looks like hundreds of people have invested in VCrs at over £3 unit and they are almost impossible to get rid of at any price.

75. Edgebrook is a scam, like Clark Carbon. Dont send them any money.

    You have probably all been through the same phases as me: frustration, anger, clinging to hope of finding another exit, feelings of hopelessness etc. Get mad for sure, but then get even. There is strength in numbers.

    My advice is this. Forget about MH Carbon or whatever dodgy broker you used. Go after Carbon-ex as the party to the contract (under the agency/principal concept they are liable).

    Write to them telling them you were promised an exit by your broker, but can no longer get a response. Tell them that your contract is with them and that as you have been falsely induced, you want your money back plus interest as a minimum. Copy in their solictors (Colemans).

    If you get a response it will probably deny responsibility and/or point to the Terms of Business and/or small print in the contract.

    Then get your solicitor to write a letter. This should re-iterate Carbon-ex liability, state that you have been subject to misrepresentation and refer to Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 which means that they cannot rely on the ‘small print’.

    Contact the police through Action Fraud.

    Contact the FSA and send them details. (Although they can’t take action, they may put Carbon-ex on their blacklist if enough people complain).

76. Unfortunately my story is like so many others on here. I initially bought 1000 credits in early 2011 after falling for the glowing sales patter, followed by a further 1000 in early 2012. By mid 2012 I started to have concerns about the long-term viability of the VER market and decided to exit whenever the opportunity arose (expecting to take a hit but at least get something back).

    I was contacted in late 2012 about an exit strategy for 1000 of my credits which was “guaranteed because agreements have already been signed with a purchaser” but which required a further investment of £3000 to “bring my holding up to a tradeable amount”. I obviously had misgivings but being desperate to exit and having been told that the exit was guaranteed I foolishly paid the extra money.

    Ive had several similar calls since from different people in MHC, all working from the same script and demanding immediate action (usually with a deadline of 24-48 hours) to avail of the “guaranteed exit strategy” (all requiring various degrees of further investment). Of course whenever I try to enquire about the so-called “guaranteed exit” I had already bought into, nobody is available to take my call.

    With a heavy heart I have to conclude that this is indeed a scam and I’ll be lucky to ever see any of my money again.

77. Sorry – my post immediately above is a different Mike!

78. On another note, Carbon-Ex recently got in touch with me about converting my initial 1000 VER investment into Green CER’s (again along with a further investment). While the gCER market offers greater liquidity and regulation it has also been in the doldrums of late, however the target price set by Carbon-Ex for an exit was £10.80. When I asked what they were basing this on, given the historic record lows for gCERs they sent the following info:

    “Info & News EU ETS debate leans towards tighter pollution cap 04/03/2013:

    “Hours of debate on reform of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on Friday showed support for tighter annual pollution limits, but hardly any backing for a change to an overall EU 2020 goal on carbon cutting. Friday’s all-day meeting was a consultation of interested parties, including representatives of member states, utilities, energy-intensive industries and green groups. Both tighter annual pollution limits and changes to overall EU 2020 goals would reduce the oversupply of carbon allowances, which pushed the EU ETS to a record low of less than three euros per tonne earlier this year. The price collapse means the ETS is unable to engineer a shift to lower carbon energy, prompting the European Commission to propose a combination of short-term and long-term changes.Many parties were in favour of the option to make an early revision to the linear reduction factor of the annual emission cap according to commission officials and, if necessary, to apply the option to permanently retire allowances that had been withheld through backloading.

    Below are a few expectations set by some leading analysts. These are from the attached email and from the Reuters article below:

    COMPANY PRICE UNIT PUBLISHED SCENARIO

    UBS EUR10-15 EUA Feb 2013 900 million reduction

    Barclays EUR16 EUA Jun 2012 1.2 billion reduction

    Thomson Reuters EUR16 EUA Jun 2012 900 million

    “Reuters – June 2012:
    Withholding an amount near the top end of the 400 million-1.2 billion range would cause prices to double to around 14.40 euros by the end of next year, according to an average of the estimates submitted by six analysts surveyed.”

    I checked this info out and it does seem to have some basis in reality
    (http://ec.europa.eu/clima/news/articles/news_2012111203_en.htm, http://blog.vertis.com/?p=983)but am I just kidding myself or having the wool pulled over my eyes in some other way?

79. Had the same from Carbon-ex. Convert to gCERs, target price etc etc. And they want you to pay more money to convert your now ‘worthless’ VERs. No no no.

    There is a post above about Carbon Expert. From all the many scams out there they appear to be genuine (as far as I can tell but too much detail to post here). But, at the end of the day I was not prepared to risk more.

    There is speculation and litle facts about VERs. This is what I now believe.

    At the true provider end (the projects themselves) VERs are sold in bulk at something under £1. These are made available to wholesalers (such as Carbone-ex or CNI) at around £2. The wholesalers make these available to brokers at between £2.50 – £3.50. Brokers can sell them for what they like.

    Companies that actually provide consultancy to make firms carbon netral charge for expertise on measuring footprint, marketing etc. As part of the overall deal they sell the VERS for about £7.50. The firms buy into this because its part of the overall deal.

80. Hello again to everyone,

    As I mentioned before I have had the same offer from Carbon-ex. Surrender my existing VERs and buying gCER for an additional 3200 GBP.
    The price for each gCER would be 2.50 GBP instead of 4.95 GBP for each, exit price 10.80.

    gCER (green CER) are currently trading around €0.33! The spot price is available on the European Energy Exchange (EEX), http://www.eex.com
    where emission certificates are officially traded. The offer from Carbon-ex is ridicolous.(=fraud)

    Comment to Mike S. there is a difference in price between CER (offered to usby Carbon-ex)and EUA.

    It is a phantastic research about Carbon-ex, Chris, thank you! Anyone who gets involved with Carbon-ex, please contact:

    The Finance Authority of Luxembourg: Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, L-2991 Luxembourg
    Phone : (+352) 26 25 1 -1 Fax: (+352) 26 25 16 01
    Web site : http://www.cssf.lu

    Do complain about Carbon-ex( you can do this in French, German and English)
    They will confirm that Carbon-ex is not registered with them and they have no authorisation in or outside Luxembourg selling financial products.The more complain, the better!

    Besides some good news: According to Metropolitain Police, the accounts of Clark Carbon Capital in London have been frozen under the suspicion of money laundering.
    It takes time but it is worth to complain to actionfraud.

81. @Mike) – Thanks for this. I thought it was worth trying to find out a bit more about this company, so I’ve just written a post about Carbon-ex: “Carbon-ex S.à r.l: Carbon trading “industry-leader” or just another boiler room scam?”.

82. @Mike S) – Thanks for this. It’s very useful and interesting to read what MH Carbon is sending its clients.

    But there’s a fundamental principle of carbon trading that MH Carbon isn’t telling you (apart from the fact that a VER isn’t the same thing as an EUA). Anyone wanting to buy carbon credits wants new carbon credits – that is, carbon credits where the reduction in emissions took place recently. The older a carbon credit is, the less it is worth.

    Edward Hanrahan of Climate Care, explains this principle here: “How much does a carbon credit cost?”

    Here’s an analogy, from today’s post about Carbon-ex:

    When you are buying wine it is generally true to say that buyers will pay a higher price for older vintages than they will for the newer wines. When you are buying bread it is generally true to say that the fresher the bread the higher the price. It is the complete opposite to wine. Carbon credits are the same as bread and nothing like wine.

    In November 2012, the UK High Court closed down a company selling carbon credits as an investment called Foxstone Carr Limited. Here’s what the judge said,

    “[T]he missing information customers aren’t told is the considerable difficulty they face in disposing of the carbon credits. The usual cold calling methods are used to sell and to give the impression that the credits are likely to go up in value and can be traded easily. In fact this is not the case. Information has been obtained that the older the credit the less desirable they are and therefore the less valuable the credit becomes over time. This information is concealed from consumers.”

83. @Chris
    Thanks for that Chris. My second post was in relation to gCERs that Carbon-Ex offered in exchange for 1000 of my VERs (with cash adjustment), but if what you are saying is correct they could be older gCERs with no real tradeable value.

    If this is the case, then the patter used by them during phone conversations was definitely fraudulent and misleading on their part – is there any way I can check out the age of the gCERs other than taking their word for it?

84. Has anyone heard of Global Financial Services (www.gfservices.co.uk)? They say they are picking up the mess MH Carbon left behind and offering me an exit, but on the “buy CERs and we’ll sell the lot” basis. The one and only deal is happening tomorrow and the exit prices are approx the same as MHC were “offering” but they will take 3% commission. They are FSA registered (albeit via an EEA passport) with nothing negative against them on the register. Everything so far on headed paper with FSA reg number (authorised and registered) in the footer. Their website is pretty basic and they only list their address as Threadneedle Street with no number, which is slightly suspicious! They have sent me an exit contract containing a guaranteed minimum price per credit and later confirmed the actual exit price for my specific contracts via email – usual thing, money in 3 days then you sign the credits over. At the moment, I just can’t part with the funds to buy the CERs, especially as they want £22k. They said I could pay half, receive the funds from half the credits, then pay the other half and get the rest of the proceeds.

    Any thoughts?

85. Spiceboy,

    Two comments, one for you and one for a previous post………

    Be very very wary. Two companies have contacted me in the last week offering help to sell my credits currently held by MHC. There is now a feeding frenzy by the con men and those seeing a great opportunity to get rich quick on the back of desperate people holding worthless credits. They are very very clever and will sound convincing but really, why would you need to pay more if they could sell. Just offer them a 20-25% commission on the sale of what you have already, which will more than cover the loss of you NOT investing more. Once you suggest this they back off quickly. Alternatively, tell them you are going to hold until a trading platform becomes a reality. Without a trading platform (and there is no such thing at present) how can they sell them??

    Reference the comment about old wine and new bread earlier today………If VERS actually lose value (sic) with time then why would anyone buy a credit at the value you bought them? If you bought at £2.80 say, then why would anyone want to buy recent purchase you paid £5.50 for. Surely a credit is a credit and the cheaper you bought one for the less a potential buyer would need to pay and still leave you with a potential profit (or alternatively less of a loss if you get my drift).

86. Has anyone had contact with this group??

    This is the website

    http://www.cn-investments.com

    States they are FSA registered etc. Comments welcome guys.

87. @Spiceboy
    They have made me the same offer, guaranteed deal going ahead tomorrow, but to me it just sounds too similar to the stories I’ve been getting directly from MHC to take a chance. Pity when we don’t feel like we can trust anyone at all anymore…

88. @Jon) – There are three posts on REDD-Monitor featuring Carbon Neutral Investments:

    28 November 2012: Another boiler room scam? Enviro Associates’ “misleading” claims about carbon credits

    8 December 2012: Response from Paul Seakens, Director of Carbon Neutral Investments and Enviro Associates

    27 February 2013: Is the Knifton family behind Carbon Neutral Investments?

89. @Jon – Yes, a “credit is a credit”. Like a loaf of bread is a loaf of bread.

    @SpiceBoy – How did Global Financial Services get in touch with you? And where did they get your contact details from? Their website was registered on 8 January 2013. As you point out, their address has no street number. Who owns the company? What is their record? (I couldn’t find the company on duedil.com or companiesintheuk.co.uk.) The recoup loss (which is presumably what they are trying to interest you in) information on their website looks a bit hurried (to put it politely):

    

90. Dear All

    I have written a long blog on the post that Chris set up about Carbon-ex.

    I urge you all to read this and take the actions I suggest.

    If we act in concert and in a consistent way I believe we have a better chance of getting justice than individually. Happy to receive other suggestions.

91. Mike S, Chris Lang

    Mike, Chris is correct that the age ‘vintage’ of the credit does affect its desirability, as well as what project the credit comes from. Don’t forget that companies are buying (and retiring) VERs for marketing purposes. They therefore want to be associated with recent projects that they can show are helping the environment today and the local community. But its all relative. If you hold credits in a project that is ongoing it probably doesn’t matter that much if the credits you bought were issued this year or 5 years ago.

    Also, its up to you, but I wouldn’t touch Carbon-ex offer to exchange my VERs for gCERs. They want us part with more money to take us this amazing offer. Really? What a surprise. No thanks.

92. do not under any circumstances part with any more money either to mhcarbon or anyone else offering you any exits especially if they want money from you first .i spoke to jeff razaq this morning after i sent him an email asking for an update of the situation .has noone else tried to contact him
    there is no platform just now for sales on the market .the market has been over saturated with the credits that has caused the prices to plummet . his main objective now is to set up exits for all credits once the market starts to recover..he cant promise prices or exact time but he thinks it could be around 6 months for things to turn around .the main point is there can be three outcomes either we loss all our money which most of us are expecting to happen .pay out and lose more money to new companies making false promises .if they actually had any exits planned do you not think mhcarbon would know about it and use them .or we wait it out which would be the hardest thing to do . if we are convinced that we have lost our money anyway what would be the harm . at the end of the day at least we wont lose more money to con men taking advantage of the situation otherwise we will be throwing good money after bad .we can splash about as much as we want but realistically we dont really have a choice but to wait

93. So Jeff Razaq has bought MH Carbon, then sacked all the brokers to set up an offsetting organisation? And he’s going to go to all this trouble and expense to help you sell your credits. But just not right now as the market is saturated. Forgive me if I am a little sceptical.

    You can check out the umber of Credits issued and retired on the vcs website. The number issued has always far outweighed those retired, but as a percentage the proportion retired has actually been going up in the last year or so.

94. Hi,

    It is amazing how many calls I have had since MH Carbon ran into problems. How do other companies get to know about MH (and other) clients.

    Had a call from http://www.albertholmes.com/index.html a guy called Joe Stubbings who within the first two lines of his chat mentioned MH. Anyone know anything about this investment company called Albert Holmes, non FSA regulated and happy to deal CERs?

    Initial low key but I guess I will get another call to ramp things up!! I had never heard of them until today.

95. Can you direct me to where on that VCS web site the retired projects are listed please? I have had a look but need direction!!

96. Thanks all for the comments.

    Here are the things that check out:

    – FSA registration number 521324 – 3D Global Financial Services Ltd
    – Supplied exit contract looked OK, although I am definitely not a lawyer
    – They are taking a 3% commission (high for a financial product but reasonable in the circumstances)
    – They would not accept offers that would be in breach of a normal compliance process e.g. can’t you do the deal and take a cut?

    Here are the things that are suspicious:

    – Their FSA registration is based on an entity in Cyprus that qualifies with FSA due to EEA passporting
    – They called me up out of the blue saying they were acting on behalf of MHC clients (and 2 other carbon brokers who’s names I didn’t get)
    – They knew the exact amount of the trade I had been discussing with MHC (I’m assuming an ex-MHC person is involved)
    – They were not keen for me to come to their office
    – Their website and headed paper only state “Threadneedle Street” with no number
    – Their website looks pretty basic and is relatively new (although they said they only formalised the UK entity recently)
    – Companies House – there are lots of companies with similar names and I can’t find the right one (assuming they have a UK entity)
    – The exit bank account is in China (allegedly where the buying entity is but naturally concerned about getting any money back from an overseas bank. They say it is a holding account (and it is named as such) but I have no way of checking this.
    – This is the only trade in town, time is tight to meet the deadline, if you don’t get out not then when MHC is liquidated you will lose your credits (some of mine are held by MHC Nominees)

    Things I can’t call either way:

    – They said that the exit trade MHC was planning fell through last week because MHC’s accounts were frozen by the fraud squad, therefore MHC is unable to participate in any exits, even if they do appear.
    – They said that MHC is about to be liquidated and nominees will lose their credits (I think this is just scaremongering as the credits should be in nominee client accounts and any unauthorised transfers would be theft)

    Anyway, I have reported them to ActionFraud and documented all my dealings with them…

97. Hi Jon,

    I was approached by http://www.albertholmes.com too. Had the same offer as you.
    They are persistent, have called me already four times but won´t buy any carbon credits from them at all.

    Just a general Information about CER and EUA credits for everybody.
    If you go on the website of EEX (www.eex.com),click on EEX -participants-
    Emission Rights.
    There is a long list of regulated companies who are dealing with carbon credits. You can also use the filter and it will be sorted by countries.

98. I’m sorry but can’t you can’t see the wood from trees? It’s all a lot of bullshit and these charlatans are trying to extort more money from you. If you weren’t so desperate to recoup your money you would see through the smoke and mirrors. I too have lost a lot of money and as much as it pains me I a have to draw a line under the whole sordid affair and accept the money has gone.

99. Not sure to who that response is directed at but I agree. However, I take a perverse delight at leading these Charlatans on for a while. It provides me with some degree of satisfaction that I can play them along.

    You either walk away or look toward a legal route. Expensive either way you look at it unless any action is coordinated as already mentioned in a previous comment.

100. I refer you to post number 59. I have had contact from some who have made significant, and some distressed undisclosed investments. We need to get a coordinated handle on this. Write it off and they laugh all the way to their luxury yachts, and they no doubt have done in the champagne bars whist they have been scamming us.

101. They’re already in their luxury yachts quaffing champagne that had been paid for, in cash, from the money we gave them!I don’t dispute we should try to co-ordinate a joint picture of the extent of all our investments and our experiences but I think you have to be realistic as to what it can achieve. At best, it should act as a warning for potential new investors and should be forwarded to the relevant authorities.

102. Jon – if you go into an individual project on the vcs website, it will list by year (vintage) the credits issued and the number retired.

     Smoke – agree about what even a co-ordinated effort might achieve, but even if all we do is give these guys a load of hassle thats worth it in my book. The alternative is to wring our hands and cry into our beer while they quaff champagne.

     A couple of you have already given me your email addresses (see the Carbon-ex post) so if anyone else is interested, please ask Chris to release your address to me

103. What amazes me is quite how many people seem to be happy to make money by ripping other people off. Egdebrook Carbon Invest appear to use women to do the dirty work (I’ve been contacted by 3 of them), presumably on the assumption that we are more likely to trust females.

     I mean what do they do when they go home at night? ‘Hi darling, how was your day?’ ‘Excellent, I ripped off another half dozen desparate people, who have already been conned before’. ‘Good work, a glass of champagne before we put the kids to bed?’

     Who said Money is the source of all evil?

104. Mike

     I am happy for Chris Lang to give you my e-mail address.

     Look forward to hearing from you.

105. I posted a posting a few weeks ago and it appeared but no longer seems to be in the string. I unfortunately I brought quite a number of Carbon Credits over the last 18 months. I was persuades in the end by Carbon Expert to surrender them and pay £2.50 per credit to convert to GCER. I was promised an exit in early September at a price of at least £9.00 based on existing contracts which are in place with clients. I am told the deal has gone through but have received no receipt and have been told that I will receive no certificates as GCERs do not have them. The only paperwork is the Carbon-ex contract where the printed name is not readable. This is totally unacceptable not withstanding the price paid. Has anyone else actually received receipts and paper work to confirm the transaction?

     What Carbon-ex have been doing is fraud and should be dealt with under EU anti fraud policing.

     Blazer

106. @blazer – You commented on another post about Carbon-ex, here. David Martin of Carbon Expert has responded (twice, here and here) in that discussion.

107. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SPEND ANY MORE MONEY TRYING TO GET OUT OF THIS MESS . WHETHER ITS A DIFFERENT COMPANY PROMISING YOU AN EXIT IF YOU BUY MORE CREDITS FROM THEM FIRST OR IF ITS TO CHANGE OVER FROM VERs TO gCERs IF AT THE END OF THE DAY THERE WERE ANY EXITS THE COMPANY THAT IS ALREADY HOLDING YOUR CREDITS SHOULD ALSO KNOW ABOUT IT .IF YOU HAVE BOUGHT CREDITS AND THEY ARE REGISTERED THEN YOU SHOULD NOT LOSE YOUR CREDITS EVEN IF THE COMPANY YOU BOUGHT THEM FROM GOES BUST .THE REASON THE VALUE OF THE CREDITS HAVE GONE DOWN SO MUCH IS BECAUSE OF OVER SATURATION OF THIS MARKET .BECAUSE OF THIS ALL PREVIOUS FORECASTS MADE ARE NO LONGER VALID. IF AT ANY POINT THE PRICE WAS TO RISE SLIGHTLY AND WE DECIDED TO SELL BY THE TIME THE COMPANIES TAKE THERE CUT WE COULD STILL SEE A LOSE .THE CARBON MARKET IS NOT REGISTERED WITH THE FSA BUT THAT DOES NOT STOP US FROM REPORTING THEM OR CONTACTING ACTION FRAUD .I THINK IT IS NOW SIMPLY A WAITING GAME. DOING NOTHING IS THE HARDEST THING BUT IS OUR ONLY
     SAFEST OPTION UNLESS WE WANT TO LOSE MORE MONEY.AS A SAFETY PRECAUTION LOG IN , MAKE A COPY OF THE INFORMATION IN YOUR ACCOUNT AND PLACE IN A FOLDER .,PROJECT NAME ,PROJECT ID NO ECT ECT .JUST IN CASE AT ANY POINT IN THE FUTURE YOU ARE UNABLE TO LOG INTO YOUR ACCOUNT OR FIND THE PAPER WORK YOU WILL STILL HAVE THE INFORMATION YOU NEED .

108. Hi Everyone

     I would be happy to enter into any collective legal action on the basis of miss-selling of an inappropriate investment product to individuals, if anyone is leading on this?

     Thanks

     Mark P

109. Hi Mike

     Not sure that I really want to register with Gravatar…you can understand my caution on anything related to carbon credits!

     I bought 3200 VERs at £3.65 each through MH Carbon two years ago in project 56 with Carbonex as the custodians and Coleman’s as the solicitor. All the usual deceit from MH carbon ever since, and contacts from lots of other brokers promising this and that including Carbonex recently. Is this all you need at the moment?

     Mark P

110. Mark P

     I am consolidating details of those who have been potentially mis-sold carbon credits and wish to consider collective action. You will see the basis of the case at the top of the post regarding Carbonex (see this link).
     Please click on my photo to get contact details and send details of your investments, contracts, promises etc.

     Mike

111. Hi Mark P

     You don’t need to register with Gravatar to get my details. But anyway the email address for anyone wishing to contact me over this is carboncredits@hotmail.co.uk

     I would like to know more specifics of your dealings as contracts appear sometimes to be direct with MH Carbon and sometimes with Carbonex, but suggest this is done direct to me to avoid clogging up this forum.

     Mike

112. A quick update on the Global Financial Solutions business (Posts #84 and #96)…

     I didn’t post here in case they were reading it too, but I went along with their scam to see how far I would get. They wanted me to purchase a matching CERs to combine with my VERs so that they could sell the whole lot as a bundle. They had already received the funds from the buyer so it was just a formality now. I verbally said “yes” and told them I had wired money to the Chinese holding account. They said they were ready to issue the exit paperwork and I would have the money in a few days. Naturally, I had NOT wired any money but I stalled for as long as I could – it was an international payment, just missed the close of play in China that day, HSBC has the receiving account flagged for fraud, etc. I offered them 2 options – one was to settle on a net basis and just wire me the profits and the other was to use my solicitor as an escrow agent. Neither were acceptable so I declined to proceed.

     I have reported them to Action Fraud and supplied them with all the relevant documentation, including call records. I believe that they were acting alongside some ex-MHC staff, most likely Adam Jones. Adam, they are coming for you if you are reading this!

113. On another matter, I spoke to Jeff Razaq earlier today. He is attempting to call all MHC customers (around 600) personally over the next few weeks to give an update.

     From the start of next month, MHC will be actively marketing credits to corporates that have a desire to become carbon neutral. I asked what resources he has to do this and he has 3 people marketing and generating leads and he will personally do the sales pitches. He has funding for the staff and premises for the rest of the year. I asked how our credits would be allocated if he does deals and he said they would be allocated fairly on a percentage basis across people with the appropriate credits for the deals done.

     He did say that most people he has spoken have been reasonable and understand that this is now a waiting game but a few have threatened legal action. Personally, I don’t think legal action against MHC would get us anywhere – they would just go bust and we’d get nothing out of it but a large legal bill. I asked about MH Nominees and was it ring-fenced if MHC go bust and he assured me it was (although that’s hardly a cast iron guarantee!)

114. I wouldn’t hang my hat on the plan however geniune JR may be. With 600 customers I would guess that MHC have 2-4million credits on their books. Its going to take more than 3 people generating leads abd JR doing sales pithes to make a dent in that.

     It still doesn’t quite stack up to me that JR would buy MHC, then effectively start a new business to try and help customers who he hasn’t made any money from selling to in the first place.

115. OK. So World Futures (see post) took £2.5million from clients in 10 months. A relatively small outfit. With 600 clients say MH Carbon have taken over £10million (conservatively). There are over 100 brokers in this area from small to big.

     It doesn’t take a leap to suspect that over £100million has been scammed from investors – perhaps much more. Large enough surely to get government,the authorities and the police interested.

     Most of these will be held in the big nominee accounts under such as Carbon-ex nominees, Cni Nominees, MH Carbon nominees. Is there anyway we can check this out?

116. I’ve been conned out of 12K. I do not think we should let them get away with this. There is strength in numbers! The sooner we act the better.

117. Mark – I see two options (apart from doing nothing and hoping that some time in the future a ‘proper’ market materialises)

     Acting individually or together use the Financial Ombudsman service and legal action (under the tort of misrepresentation). Problem with legal action is that a firm like MH Carbon is unlikely to have many assets as previous owners will have taken the cash out, so even if we win JR isn’t going to stump up and it will probably be forced into liquidation. Its then possible to go after the previous directors….

     Or. As a group gain attention by writing to MPs, petitioning parliament, contacting the media etc. Then contact some household name companies that do offset and persuade them to buy our credits instead of whoever they deal with – good PR for them in helping those that have been scammed and we can be competitive on price

118. Hi Mike,

     Personally, I don’t think JR knew what he was getting in to when he bought MHC! He told me that with hindsight he would not have gone ahead with the transaction and his marriage has broken down due to the pressure of it all. He could easily have liquidated the company and done something else so I do believe he thinks there is enough money in it for him to continue.

     We could get together and sue MHC, but I really think he’d liquidate the company immediately and we’d end up with a big legal bill.

     The other option is to try and pull our resources. Perhaps we could put together a portfolio of the credits we hold and try and sell in bulk? Does anyone know of any actual exits that have happened and who the buyers were? Could we approach them directly? Could we approach some offsetting companies and offer them a deal? etc.

     I agree there must be 2m+ credits between the 600 customers, but if JR could sell 100k per month at a reasonable price that would get us out in a couple of years. Not sure what anyone is thinking about prices – if someone offered to buy back your credits at cost, you’d bite their arm off! What about £2 per credit? $1? We all have a price we’d accept.

     Coming from a slightly different angle – has anyone looked into the tax treatment of these losses? My understanding is that you can declare the credits worthless and take a capital loss on your next tax return. This is calculated at 28% but you can only offset this against a future capital gain although it can be carried forward indefinitely. Can anyone confirm this?

119. If JR didn’t know what he was getting into, selling 100K a month is pie in the sky.
     It may be possible to buy a list of companies that offset. But then you need a) marketing, b) the ability to measure carbon foorprint (not too difficult). Its going to take timed and investment to penetrate the market.

120. I HAVE FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF ANY COMPANY EXITING CLIENTS.
     From extensive research, I don’t believe anyone has but do tell me different? I really have checked out many. I think we are stuck with them unless the price goes up and we have a lever with purchase price.
     Permanently Retiring Credits to ‘up the market? I can’t see how they can just retire credits, it’s someone’s investment.
     Mind, that didn’t stop them relieving accounts in Cyprus.
     Edgebrook, I think that’s just many x £895 from client lists.
     One company is trying to facilitate exits via carbon footprint calculations but have done no exits yet.

     I did have a call from a non carbon broker today, saying he knows of someone that has exited clients but he’s not saying who.
     There is so much Bull out there but one thing I’m certain of, spending more to exit, with anyone, is a hope not a guarantee.

121. Take a look at World Carbon Marketplace. There are 28 sellers, listing 58 projects with a combined for sale value of 2.08m UKP. I have previously seen some credits as “No longer available” implying sold, e.g. Hyundai and a few others I cannot remember. No idea who the buyers may have been, more people like us perhaps. Maybe the owner of the site will contact you and answer your questions (best of luck!).

     To my mind there are several things we might like to accomplish. Recover our investment (false hope maybe), see these characters face the consequences of their scamming, get some action from regulators/government/fraud agencies. It is up to you (us I mean…).

122. I originally found World Carbon Marketplace on a blog by guess who – MH Carbon. Initially had an introductory offer platform fee which was set to rise. Couldn’t get in contact with them. No evidence that anyone has sold via this site.

     Agree that any of these accomplishments would be worthwhile

123. That was quick! World Carbon Marketplace’s entire website seems to have disappeared. The following message is all that’s left:

     

     All of which would appear to lend some strength to the argument that this was indeed a scam.

124. I just got an email from World Carbon Marketplace, stating:

     “We are currently updating the website to avoid any confusion on the nature of our business.”

125. Avoiding confusion? So you pay an additional £20 to get your credits at the top of the list. What happens if 10 people pay this – they can’t all go to the top of the list. Do they actually market your credits or simple stick them on a website? We will see when the website is updated whether all this is clarified

126. @A-S-J and @Mike – Thanks for this. I’ve sent a series of questions to Amy Tierney, who is the sole director of WCM Solutions Ltd, the company behind World Carbon Marketplace. I’ll give her a few days to reply before posting the questions on REDD-Monitor.

     In the meantime… WCM Solutions was established in October 2012. It’s office is in South Wimbledon. Here’s what it looks like:

     

     A virtual office company offers this address.

     The company originally charged £249.99 for its services (which amount to collecting your information and posting the details of the carbon credits on World Carbon Marketplace’s website). This has now been reduced to £49.99, but you can pay another £20 to get your credits at the top of the list. World Carbon Marketplace offers no guarantee of selling the credits.

     The home page of World Carbon Marketplace’s website links to a twitter account: @carbon_investor. Here’s one of the recent tweets:

     

     But the older tweets are much more interesting. Like this one, from 20 October 2011:

     

     I asked Amy about this tweet (there were many other similar ones). I know she received my email because the twitter account has now been deleted.

127. I expect they are using smoke and mirrors to update their site Chris.
     I’m certain that clarification of the confusion will be as clear as mud Mike!
     If there really was anyone exiting clients we would know by now.
     Frankly if they were, they would be showing us evidence because there is massive profit in it apparently. Well, if they can sell em at the regularly purported £7.50 ish+ there is right? Yet nobody will even give me what I paid for mine or ‘cents on the $’ and take my profit. However, everyone is happy for me to invest in more credits on verbal promises, which is exactly what I had from MH. How do these people sleep?!

128. I’m trying to help my son recover a small inheritance of K10 invested in carbon credits with MH Carbon and am horrified after reading these emails. We are only at the start of the process but he’s already been fobbed off in the same way as others i.e. his original broker no longer works there, the firm is merging with another, blah blah blah.
     He is about to finish uni and this money would have set him up for the next stage of his life so this is devastating news.
     Would your advice be to proceed through the channels (such as informing them he wants to cash in his investments) as if the firm were not a scam – just to show we’ve followed the proper procedure? All and any advice is welcome.
     Thank you.

129. Exploring normal channels of communication with the company seems like a sensible idea so they at least know your position. I expect we will all have to wait and hope that the market picks up or that the director can find a buyer to relieve us of our holdings. Time will tell.

130. Yes, we have started this process although our expectations are extremely low as far as getting any money back but I agree, a paper trail is important.
     Thank you.

131. @Gwyn Kasey – Thanks for this and I’m very sorry to hear about this. I would recommend contacting Action Fraud, either via their website or by ringing them up on 0300 123 2040.

     

132. If you want to get your money back you have to be inventive/creative.

     Though it might be a bit late if the brokerage has closed.

     When I mean creative, numerous ways, thinking outside the box – invent a CV false name or get a friend who is a good talker and sympathetic go for an interview with firm that sold you credits, thats is if they’re still running.

     Apply for a job Depending if you or friend get the role which shouldn’t be too hard.

     Work there for a short while ,during this time make friends with the team, plant listening devices if you can on sales floor but better in office of manager owners if you’re resourceful try and record audio visual with IPhone just leave it running.
     Follow manager / owners home get there address. Try and catch them at something incriminating in office out of office listen for names something useful.

     you have to think outside the box if you want your money back.

     I used to work at one of these firms that many of you have mentioned but I wont say, didn’t stay long because I couldn’t make sales.

     However some people HAVE got there money back, by being absolute nuisances.

     I haven’t read accounts on this blog at least but from the few inside stories that I have heard it was not by conventional means of waiting for exits.

     Last resort if you dont want to break the law. Mass protest also without violence, hamper their operation, you might not get your money back but you will interfere with their scheme. There is no exit, no compensation you will never see your money again. Don’t let the trail go cold, if you saw the way these people act when off the phone your blood would boil. Good Luck.

133. Sam
     Believe me our blood is boiling! In the case of MH there seems little point in taking the action you suggest as we know that Razaq has fired the previous staff and appears to be trying to focus on exits. There are those who suggest he should be given a chance. Frankly I think this is a lost cause – a triumph of optimism over reality. He would be better off starting a new operation if this is his intention. If MH goes into liquidation investors can then go after the previous directors who are the ones that have scammed you and taken your money out of the company. But you can’t do this while MH exists.
     Gwynn, S Hicks – please contact me direct if you would like to join our group in possible concerted action

134. Hi All,
     A company, GEM global says they can sell our ver credits. Samuel Baron was the gentleman. He was introduced to me by Harvey Williams from IAconsulting (I believe the company name to be). Samuel wants me to send the ver certificates and I.D. I did say there are other investors like me and that can he do a job lot. He also wants me to invest £5000 with the compnay. It does sound a bit dodgy. Any views anyone?

135. @baj – It sounds very dodgy. This is part 2 of the classic boiler room scam. Part 1: sell something that is near worthless. Part 2: offer to recover the investor’s money, as long as they hand over more money.

     Of course Samuel Baron was a gentleman. He’s trying to get you to hand over £5,000. He’s hardly likely to be rude, is he?

     Please contact Action Fraud, either via their website or by ringing them up on 0300 123 2040.

     And look at the Financial Conduct Authority web page (FCA took over from the FSA at the beginning of April 2013): What to do if you are scammed, especially Step 1: “Stop sending money” and Step 4:

     Step 4: Beware of ongoing scams

     If you have lost money to a scam – or even just been contacted by fraudsters – you should beware that it is likely you will be targeted again.

     If you have already been scammed the fraudsters will try to take advantage of you wanting to recover your money, and might offer to help you get back some or all of it.

     You may be reassured that your original investment is genuine and encouraged not to pull out of the deal or report it to us. You might even be threatened with legal action, although this is usually not carried through – get legal advice if you are concerned.

     Claims that your investment will soon soar in value are common in recovery rooms, or you may be told you can swap it for another deal, with a transfer fee involved.

     You might also be asked to pay a capital gains tax bill before the large profit you were promised can be released to you, even if it never actually will be.

     An offer to buy back the shares or investment that you have lost money on, might need an administration fee or insurance deposit to firstly be paid. But you are unlikely to ever receive the money from their supposed sale.

     These secondary or ongoing scams are run from what the fraudsters call ‘recovery rooms’ and are often carried out by the same group as the first scam to take more money from victims.

136. baj

     Do not under any circumstances send this man £5,000! If he really is able to sell your credit for you, he can take the £5,000 out of the proceeds and send you a cheque for the difference.

     Get as many personal details as possible from them. Get names, phone numbers, any FSA regulation numbers or equivalent. Then report them to Action Fraud. If they are a genuine firm, it will be very easy for them to justify this to the police. If they are dodgy, you will have given the police valuable information.

137. Hi Mike,
     Thank you for the offer of joining with you and others in concerted action about MH Carbon. Unfortunately there’s no point in my joining – I’m just doing the leg work for my son – he’s the one who bought the credits, (and I’ll pass your offer on to him) but I would very much appreciate being kept in the loop as to whatever action your group takes. My son has started the process of trying to recoup his investment – 14 days the Terms and Conditions say – and we’ll take it step by step from there.
     We’ll definitely be contacting Action Fraud and the Ombudsman as well as seeing if there is any help to be had from places like Guardian Money Consumer Advice and the BBC’s Watchdog – not that they will get the money back for us but to try and bring more attention to what is going on.
     Thank you, Chris and everyone else who has offered advice.

138. Getting a job alongside these jokers may have its appeal to get your investment back, but to be credible you would have to indulge in their fraudulent activities. This might make you party to fraud, unless you do this in conjunction with the anti-fraud teams. I think the best outcome, and that would certainly make me smile for some time to come, would be to get all those involved behind bars!

     See:

     http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/CityPolice/Media/News/detectivesdismantlesuspectedcarboncreditfraud.htm

     Oh, and see post 59. Some have replied to me and provided information, but not enough as yet. Unless we pull together, the fraudsters win and will continue to laugh at our expense.

139. Afterthought.

     Hello Sam Maritann, you say you worked in this field for a while and have first hand knowledge of what went on. Would you be willing to give evidence?

140. hi under no circumstances pay any money out to anyone whatever they promise .if anyone says they can transfer your vers to cers they are talking rubbish .they are two different markets .they would need to physically sell your vers to buy the cers so if that was possible then why would you buy cers once the vers are sold . this is just another way of conning more money from you .if you find someone who can actually sell your vers they can take there cut once they are sold before passing the balance to you .do not waste any more money on any empty promises

141. Jeff Razaq has set up another company in Nov 2012 called MH Commodity Brokers.He will not have as much time trying to sell our credits now.Does anyone know anything about this company?

142. @Gwyn Kasey and A-S-J – Sorry, your comments got stuck in the moderation queue.

     Gwyn – I agree, contacting journalists is a good idea. You could also try Tony Hetherington – experts[a]thisismoney.co.uk and Andrew Penman and Nick Sommerlad at the Mirror.

     A-S-J – Thanks! I did a post about the prison sentences for boiler room carbon credit fraudsters yesterday:

     Green collar crime: Prison sentences for two men behind a UK carbon credit boiler room scam

143. @Sag – Thanks – here’s MH Commodity Brokers on duedil.com. The company’s address is in a small town called Dereham in Norfolk.

     The company’s website explains that,

     “MH Commodity Brokers is a website coming soon. mhcommoditybrokers.com is dedicated to bringing you a diverse range of alternative and traditional investment products currently being marketed worldwide or to a specific region.”

     And that’s it. The website was registered anonymously.

     The website was registered on 27 November 2012 – the same day the company was registered. After almost five months, there’s only one sentence on the website. I don’t think Razaq is spending much time working on this company, do you?

144. Gwyn and others
     Please see A-S-J comments and mine. I’m afraid its not enough to sit back and wait and see what actions others take. Then nothing happens. Its damn hard work exploring options and we need people who are willing to use contacts, write letters and keep at it. Then and only then will the government, the regulators, the police, the media take notice.

145. Totally agree with Mike’s comments above. Is anyboy leading an action group against MH Carbon? Is it A-S-J (#59)? Any idea of number of people registered/involved in this group? Any proposed group actions?

     We should not just sit, wait and watch what Razak might or might not do next. We should go after him. He is our only link to MH Carbon, the rest of his old scamming team have apparently disappeared. I’d love to know if any of those names pop up at different scamming operations. Carbon credit scamming apears to be ubiquitous.

146. hi i email jeff directly to his email asking for an update on the situation.he confirmed to me that he does not own any other company .he has been touch with 500 of his 600 customers he is spending all his time working towards setting up exits .he plans to send out letters at the end of may to update everyone with the situation at that time .he assured me he does not plan to disappear and the only way he is going to make money is to sell the credits on our behalf and then take a commission.if he wanted he could easily have gone into liquidation and that would be the end of it . i think we should give him the benefit of the doubt.but at the same time we cant sit blindly to the situation .if we report him and he is investigated for fraud he will have nothing to
     worry about if he is legit. its now a waiting game.has anyone else actually emailed /spoken to jeff

147. Mike is working hard on this and deserves our support. I am trying to build a picture of the extent of the carbon credits sales primarily involving MH Carbon, names of brokers etc. The recent prosecution and recovery of some of the funds is very encouraging.

     All should report their individual cases directly to Action Fraud.

     As some are interested in the media side of things, a recent Channel 4+1 programme on Millionaire Criminals is probably a good place to go. See;

     http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/britains-millionaire-criminals-channel-4-dispatches/

     Gives a good insight into how these people work and the problems faced by the fraud agencies, courts etc.

148. I met Jeff Razaq in the lift when I went on an unannounced visit the MH Carbon offices for the first time last December. No idea who he was. He went and sat with the brokers in the corner of the open plan office. At that time, lots of PCs/terminals throughout the office area. Adam Jones met with me in a separate room to discuss my credits that I wanted to sell. Tried to land me with 30k worth of other credits at 6:00 each. Even though I said I was not interested, the sale note was in my inbox that evening with the requirement to conclude payment. Needless to say I checked MH Carbon’s own terms and conditions and did not pay. Anyway, I made several visits and tried using the need for cash to conclude a property purchase etc to apply pressure to sell me credits. Frank Davies eventually took over the sale, which needless to say went nowhere. Eventually met with JR (!) at Peak House and in his new serviced offices. I am torn as to whether he was naive to buy MH Carbon, or is just there to keep the legal pressure away from the real culprits who ran MH Carbon before JR took it over. He was very pally with the brokers and used to have a Solar Panel business.

149. Suppose JR is genuine. Then we have to believe the following. He bought MH Carbon only to find out that it was a scam, without doing any basic due diligence. Presumably it has no assets apart from a few PCs and whatever cash he has injected. The rest of what he paid would be laughingly called ‘Goodwill’ on the accounts. Having discovered this, rather than going after the previous owners, he embarks on a crusade to sell the 2.5million credits MH Carbon’s clients hold and reckons he can do this in a year without any previous experience in the offsetting market.

     If this is true, to call him stupid would be an insult to stupid people. It would make us look like savvy investors. To put him out of business (and therefore be able to go after the previous owners) would be doing him a favour.

     Or perhaps he’s a stooge for the previous owners.

     Or perhaps he’s not JR but JC with 5 loaves and 2 fish.

150. Mike,

     Razaq’s email and that at MH have been returned so I guess he has done a runner. If so the way is now open to go for the previous directors (one may have been involved with Wills & Co a few years back) and get them to Court to answer for their actions. Happy to help with the legal side.

151. J Razaq seems to have deleted his e-mail address and that of info@mhcarbon too.

     This suggests he has run so is there now an opportunity to go after the real rogues, the previous directors who seem to have connections (one or maybe two) with Wills & Co a stockbrokerage that went under a couple of years ago or more.

     Mike I am happy to write to whoever to pester to get this to a Court for a hearing. I have no idea where the MH money went within their holding accounts and the full web of deceit and lies needs to be unravelled.

152. I emailed JR to his email address on 3rd May re issues with my carbon credits and received an email on 8th May saying he will contact me Monday next when he returns.Must be on holidays.

153. Mail definitely being returned, which is not the case if I go away on a holiday Sag!

     Jeff Alexander, previous MH Carbon broker needs to be tracked down and put behind bars. Action Fraud were contacted about him and MH back in January but I guess wheels move slowly. Hope he is sweating and I would not be surprised if he is reading this blog along with his other cronies.

     I think we should start to identify solicitors who are willing to take this scam and the mis-selling by companies on.

154. hi i just logged into mh carbons website there is an official notice notifying mh carbon has gone into liquidation .where do we go from here .what can be done to try and get our money back

155. on the notice it says that anyone who bought credits from mh carbon will not be officially notified unless the are also creditors of the company

156. With Parker Andrews, insolvency experts. So where did all that money go to then??

157. Two points, Wills & Co – very interesting. Used them as a broker for share dealing, until they started offering only shares that were on the way down, or penny shares that I later found out were heavily overpriced. Eventually got a refund via the FSA – they having been FSA regulated. Wondered how MH Carbon got my contact details….

     MH Carbon may be insolvent for trading, BUT credits bought through MH Carbon are held in a nominee account in MH Carbon Nominees Ltd. If MHC Nominees goes into liquidation, or the credits disappear from there, then this is fraud cut-and-dried.

     Happy to contribute to the case.

158. if the credits are still accessible via mhcarbon nominees account or on the so called register is there any way we can still sell the carbon credits on and if so how .although the message about them going into liquidation was up i was still able to log into my account and check my credits that was this morning 11/5/2013

159. Although I bought my carbon credits through MHC broker James Hoile prior to JR becoming involved in the company, it is my opinion that the aggressive sales nature of the brokers became more aggressive around November 2012 when JR took over. The ploy of offering an exit if you purchased more credits also seemed to start at about the same time. I was approaced in this way by Jake Hamilton on 15th November 2012 and by Adam Jones on 14th January 2013,his name inexplicably changed to Adam Smith the next time I spoke to him. It may well be that these brokers were using false names

     I fortunately did not fall for these tactics but I feel sure that some investors may have and therefere, would surely have an action against JR. I have tape recordings of these brokers and also of JR when I spoke to him on his announcement that he was going to run the company with a handful of staff with the intention of securing exits for us investors. Incidentally, I was also a customer of Wills & Co and recovered my losses with them through the FSA.

160. I hold VERs purchased through MH Carbon. My initial transaction sold to me by the fast talking Oliver Munts, was in 2010 and was processed through Carbon-ex of Luxembourg. MHC used the services of (in order to gain credibility no doubt)solicitors, Colemans-ctts, 25 High St., Kingston on Thames. The partner handling the account was Olivia Jones and I am sure Colemans did proper due diligence of their clients, MH Carbon and will be able to assist.

161. Richard

     A number of us are suspicious about Colemans involvement. They must, by now, know that the whole thing is a scam yet continue to act for Carbon-ex, thus giving them credence. I (and others) have written to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority – please contact me direct for more info. Also I refer you to Chris’ blog about Carbon-ex for further details.

     For those ‘early’ MH Carbon clients who have contracts with Carbon-ex, you need to go after Carbon-ex. For those with contracts with MH Carbon the first step must be to write to the liquidator to state you have a claim fro mis-representation.

162. Chris
     I bought 3 different batches of carbon credits from MH Carbon. Two payments were made to MH Carbon Ltd and one payment made to eco synergies Ltd.
     My account is with MH Carbon Nominees Ltd as per their statement.I cannot get any serial numbers for all credits.How should I go about this?
     Would MH Carbon Nominee have an account in the registry.

163. @Mike – Thanks for this. I’ve just done a post about MH Carbon going into voluntary liquidation, here:

     MH Carbon goes into voluntary liquidation

     And the post about Carbon-ex is here:

     Carbon-ex S.à r.l.: Carbon trading “industry-leader” or just another boiler room scam?

164. @Sag – Thanks for your comment. I’m sorry, but I all I can advise is to contact Action Fraud. Their phone number is 0300 123 2040 (lines open from 8am to 9pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 5pm Saturdays and Sundays). There’s also a report form that you can fill online. Hopefully Action Fraud can tell you what you should do next.

165. If JR has creditors to the tune of 1.6m, then apart from the rent on the offices in Peak House, the creditors are likely to be his employees and fellow scammers. Linking Action Fraud/City of London Police with the liquidation should be very revealing and hopefully provide the evidence required to place these characters where they belong, behind bars.

166. Hi Mike and Chris.

     I have bought CER’s in February 2013, from MH carbon through a broker called Adam Smith. After that it has almost been impossible to speak to someone. My holdings are being held by Oakmount. Now, as expected, MH Carbon are in liquidation. What does this mean? I loose all my holdings? Can I get my money back? What should I do? Can you give me a lead here?

167. @PB – Thanks for this comment. I’ve just done a post based on information put out yesterday by the liquidation company, Parker Andrews:

     MH Carbon in liquidation: What to do if you bought carbon credits from MH Carbon

     I think this post answers your questions – if not, please let me know!

168. Dear readers,
     I am following the above posts with interest, being instructed to take MH Carbon Ltd into liquidation. Information on the status of people who have purchased credits is available on our website which Chris Lang has posted a link to above. You will see that the FAQ section asks for any clients who feel they have been mis-sold their credits to contact us with their experiences. Although the company has no assets (and so refunds to customers are not possible), I have statutory duties to investigate the conduct of the directors and I welcome any information provided.
     Jamie Playford
     Licensed Insolvency Practitioner

169. Does anybody have any info on World Carbon or Worldwide Commodities as they renamed themselves. They vanished in January 2013 and all I got was a letter that they “sold” my portfolio to MH Carbon. Is somebody in the process of liquidating them, and who do I contact about this? It would be crazy to let this bunch of scammers get away scott free without any sort of investigation. All this was reported to Action Fraud.

170. Dear Jamie,

     I will be sending you a letter explaining my dealings with MH, with names, dates and the conversations and promises made by their brokers.

     This has been a huge mis-selling disaster as many of the readers of this blog will be testifying. I do hope that once you see the extent of deceit and lies that you and your company can bring pressure on Action Fraud and the City of London police to investigate the previous directors and find out where all the invested money has gone.

     Kind regards,

     Jon

171. Chris, thanks for the steer re Parker Andrews. I can imagine why insolvency and the opportunity to walk away from the MH Carbon legacy will have appeal to the current, and previous owners and purveyors of myth and scammery.

     There is I believe a test in law that can be applied to the conduct of the ‘brokers’ and by default the owners, along the lines of “their conduct being appropriate and as would be demonstrated by a recognized professional in a similar role”.

     What happens after the company is liquidated? Absolutely essential that the City of London Police – who have had success in bringing other boiler room fraudsters to book – are actively involved.

172. Has anyone been contacted by a firm called Sebastian Arkwright with an offer to help convert VER’s into CER’s or gCER’s using a hedging technique whereby I would have to invest a further £5000+ “to protect the downside of your portfolio as a stop loss?

173. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES FALL FOR THIS TRAP .DO YOU NOT THINK WE HAVE LOST ENOUGH MONEY WITHOUT LOSING MORE TO OTHER SCAMMERS VERS ARE VOLUNTARY CER ARE TRADED ON THE MARKET .THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET CERS FROM VERS IS TO FIRST SELL THE VERS THEY CAN NOT BE CONVERTED DO NOT THROW GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD BECAUSE THE WORD HAS GOT ROUND ABOUT HMCARBON GOING INTO LIQUIDATION FRAUDSTERS ARE GOING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR GRIEF .THEY KNOW PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE CLUTCHING AT STRAWS TO GET THEIR MONEY BACK .THE LAST THING YOU WANT IS TO LOSE MORE MONEY .WE WON’T SEE ANY MONEY FROM THE INSOLVENCY COMPANY AS WE ARE NOT CREDITORS .IF YOU DON’T HAVE A RECORD OF YOUR CREDITS THEY CAN BE RETRIEVED FROM THE COMPANY ,THE INFORMATION WAS GIVEN IN AN EARLIER POST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT .IF OUR CREDITS ARE REGISTERED WE STILL OWN THEN .THE ONLY PROBLEM WE HAVE IS TO FIND SOMEONE WHO IS ACTUALLY ABLE TO SELL THEM ON OUR BEHALF WITHOUT SCAMMING US OUT OF OUR INVESTMENT .IN MY OPINION WE SHOULD SIT ON THEM FOR A WHILE AS THE MARKET IS NOT TO HOT FOR CREDITS .ONE THINGS FOR SURE NOONE IS GETTING ANOTHER CENT FROM ME NO MATTERS WHAT THEY PROMISE .IF THEY MAKE ANY PROMISES BUT THEY WANT MONEY FIRST TELL THEM THEY CAN TAKE A PERCENTAGE AFTER THE FINAL TRANSACTION BEST OF LUCK TO EVERYONE

174. sorry noted

175. @akbar – Thanks for this – you’re right, Sebastian Arkwright looks like a “Recovery Room” scam.

     See this comment above, in particular the advice from the FCA on what to do if you’ve been scammed. “Step 1: Stop sending money.”

     And please don’t write in capitals. It looks like you’re shouting and makes it difficult to read.

176. If the liquidator receives sufficient evidence of mal-practise and/or claims against the company he may not allow a voluntary liquidation and refer this to the Insolvency Service who may put the company into forced liquidation. OK, you don’t get your money back, but the forced liquidation is held before a judge who will listen to evidence and issue a summary. The directors (and previous directors) may be barred from any other directorship and also this then enormously strengthens any case brought against them.

     So it is essential that as many people as possible who have been mis-sold credits by MH Carbon write to the liquidator.

177. Hi Investors
     I am 100% cert that I was misrepresented by MH Carbon and so City of London Police should be urgently informed of this scam so we can get our money back or at least some.

     Misrepresentation in English Law is an area which allows a person to escape a contractual obligation or claim compensation for loss. If one person can show that he entered an agreement because of another person’s false assurances, then the other person will be unable to enforce the agreement against him, and may have to pay him damages.A misrepresentation can be an outright lie (fraud),an unintentional careless falsehood (negligance),or an innocent slip of the tongue. In most cases English Law allows escapes from the contract when a misrepresentation was made, because it holds that people should only assume contractual obligations where they are given their true consent.

178. Thankyou for reply I did suspect another scam as soon as I was contacted by a Paul Simmonds and asked him as much, had to smile when he started giving me the same old speal as the bastards at MH Carbon and the other one Worldwide commodities only you learn from your mistakes allbeit to late, I can’t recall now the number of phone calls I have made to both of these two firms and the time I and my wife have been fobbed off with false promises that an exit will be happening soon, at the end of January, March etc. Mike if it’s ok with you I will be contacting you with details of how we were ripped off and joining any group to try and get some justice for what has happend to all the people who have lost money

179. Hi Sag, the comment that you made above, would that law also cover having a pension with a firm that mismanaged it so the majority of the investments were lost through neglegence, in this case just not keeping an eye on it and letting money go down the drain as it were?

180. Hi tenaj969, I don’t know whether this would apply but negligence should come under misrepresentation.You write to the firm.Good luck.
     If we all were misrepresented by MH Carbon and as Jamie is following with interest he/she should be addressing this matter with urgency before a papertrail is lost. Also the liquidator should be informing all investors as in the case of misrepresention we all become creditors.

181. Sag, you will only become a creditor if you make a claim for misrepresentation and a court orders recompense. However, the liquidator may halt the liquidation if he has serious concerns about the conduct of the firm and is duty bound to investigate.

     Tenja – if your pension has been mismanaged your case depends on other factors, such as whether you received advice and whether negligence can be shown. This is different from misrepresentation.

182. Just received an email from “London Energy Markets” with the this link to an investment guide:

     http://www.tradegec.com/eshot/london-energy/london-energy-market.php?source=cers-internal-20052013

     Shocking to think this blatant mis-selling is still going on….

183. Sorry, the last post was from Mike S

184. I received this email as well.

185. Has anyone received a call from IFXBG Ltd? The usual offer – buy some CERs and we have a guaranteed buyback for those (plus your VERs). And they want me to pay to a bank in Taiwan.
     However IFXBG are listed on the FSA website as tied agent of an authorised and regulated company, so how can they be involved in such a blatant scam?

186. Has anyone else been approached by Hennessy Associates – Cyprus based -They are offering to buy voluntary credits on behalf of an American agency However they want substantial up front fees. Despite a smoke screen of talk about escrow accounts and independent solicitors I smell a rat. Any Comment Anyone?

187. do not part with any more money .anyone that can sell your credits can take there cut after transaction .anyone offering to transfer your vers to cers are at it .vers can not be converted into cers .also the value of cers have fallen dramatically they are properly worth less than the vers .dont part with any more money .

188. I have received various calls from various brokers from various companies. I guess I should have made a note of their names. However, at the first sign of the “script” I have asked what it is they are planning to ask me to invest in, pink diamonds, rare metals, timber, carbon credits, wine? The response, “No those investments are not performing well, pre-public release share options (PPO)…” I state I have my own investment plans and no intention of making any investments other than my own decisions, I request that my contact details are removed from their database. No calls since, but suspect it won’t be long.

189. @John Duncan – See comment (#135) above, in particular the advice from the FCA on what to do if you’ve been scammed: “Step 1: Stop sending money.”

     Any company asking for upfront fees is extremely likely to be a recovery room operation. Here’s how the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau describes a recovery room:

     A number of “recovery rooms” are now offering to assist those defrauded by boiler rooms. They will approach a victim of boiler room fraud and, for an upfront fee, promise to review their case and obtain reimbursement from a European Court fund or other legal avenue. Fees are often taken over the telephone by credit card payment or through PayPal, and it is thought that the recovery rooms purchase names of victims from the boiler rooms themselves.

     On its website, Hennessy Associates boasts that “We pride ourselves on offering simplistic advice that our clients understand.” If, like Hennessy Associates, you don’t know the meaning of the word “simplistic”, here are some synonyms: “childish”, “condensed”, “overly simplified”, “oversimplified”.

190. Hi Chris,

     Going through my past emails from MH Carbon I came across a .pdf document from MHC purporting to show profitable exits negotiated by them and ‘testimonials’ from ‘satisfied investors’.

     I now believe this document to be completely bogus. If you e-mail me directly I can forward it on to you for your own assessment.

     Regards,
     Mike.

191. Not Carbon, but maybe of interest. A call today from Elliot Moore, to sell me investments in rare metals. Broker seemed to become deaf when I asked for information about the company and how long they had been trading (sorry implied that there was a problem with the line and he could not hear me…). Still, I guess he could have e-mailed the info he said he would, familiar patter etc. See: http://boards.fool.co.uk/elliot-moore-12758217.aspx All looks a bit familiar…. Check their website – credentials claimed but no names. Take care out there!

192. Ditto. I think they must have purchased a list of our names from MHC, or some of the agents at MHC have just moved onto the next scam.

193. MH carbon are a scam and have been since they opened up the company. Well I got a bit of news for you . They have opened up a new brokerage called Green Energy Commodities and there based in Liverpool street by the road, 70 st Mary axe. It’s owned by James Hoile who is a partner at MH Carbon but also owned by none other than Gavin Marinoveski. All the major con artist from MH Carbon are there and they need to be paid a visit from the FSA

194. That’s the problem – if these guys are nimble enough they seem to be able to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Contact Action Fraud, the FCA and the Insolvency Service (you can fill in a complaint form online about MH Carbon and this new outfit online).

195. Hi guys. Over the past 2 years i have developed a large (for me) portfolio of carbon credits VSC VERs. I have purchased these via various unscrupulous companies. the reason i say unscrupulous is because out of the 3 companies i have purchased them from – World Wide Carbon, H Group and Good to be Green, each of these companies have given me forecasts, empty promises and above all countless sleepless nights. I am sure it will come as no surprise to any of you that these forecasts and promises have not come to fruition, the only thing that has grown is the number of sleepless nights i have had.
     I am a fool to have exposed myself to this area in the way that i have and to be honest i cannot believe it. these investments were meant to be ‘short term’ and foolishly i believed these people.
     i am now left with over 30,000 vers and dont know how i can sell them. has anyone had any profits in this market??
     all i seem to be getting now is calls from diamond companies and metal companies requesting that i buy their product and when i speak about carbon no body wants to know.
     is there a way back for this market or have i lost my money?

196. I have heard of these so called VER credit investments can be sold. Anyone had any luck? I should never have gone through with this. Have the feeling I am going to be left holding the baby. Another silly lesson. Any feed back would be great?

197. @richied – Thanks for your comment and I’m sorry to hear about this. If there is any link with MH Carbon, you should get in touch with Parker Andrews, the company dealing with MH Carbon’s liquidation. See this post for contact details:

     MH Carbon in liquidation: What to do if you bought carbon credits from MH Carbon

     In any case, you should contact Action Fraud, either via their website or by ringing them up on 0300 123 2040:

     

     You should also report these companies to the Financial Conduct Authority and to the Insolvency Service.

     And please get in touch with journalists who occasionally report on these boiler room companies:

     Tony Hetherington (experts@thisismoney.co.uk) at the Daily Mail;

     Andrew Penman and Nick Sommerlad at the Mirror;

     Tony Levene at the Guardian (he also writes at lovemoney.com – uknews@lovemoney.com).

198. @Paul Johnston – Thanks. I’m sorry this is bad news, but there is lots you can do. See the previous comment. Even if you don’t get your money back, you might at least help stop others from losing their money.

199. Tony Hetheringon wrote in The Mail on Sunday about MH Carbon (and Carbon-ex) here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/investing/article-2330831/Im-74-savings-gone-smoke.html

     As he points out the authorities appear to be doing nothing and as detailed above (#193) the scammers are free to set up a new operation doing exactly the same thing.

     Even the FSA warning about Carbon Credits starts with the statement: Carbon credits can be sold and traded legitimately and there are many reputable firms operating in the sector. Really? Name me One.

200. To #199, to name but a few companies engaging in legitimate carbon trading:

     JP Morgan
     Barclays
     Vattenfall
     RWE
     Evonik
     Enel-Endesa
     GDF
     Vitol
     Mercuria
     Climate change capital
     Eneco
     Shell
     BP
     Scottish Power

     Basically if you have used electricity in the EU in the past 8 years you have indirectly contributed towards the trading of carbon credits.
     Hundreds of companies have been legitimately trading carbon under the EU ETS since 2005. However very few would touch the voluntary sector. The presence of this real market has helped the fraudsters to market their worthless credits to unsuspecting investors.

     The sad thing about this sorry affair is that the fraudsters have probably done their homework and will get away with the cash before authorities catch up.

201. @Mike I think they might be referring to Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) when they talk about reputable firms trading in the carbon sector, as at least these are tradeable on secondary exchanges (even though their prices have crashed recently). Although I agree the financial authorities could be a bit more forthright about calling out the voluntary carbon investment industry as one big giant scam. There is no evidence whatsoever that any private investor has made any money at all, and even worse is the fact that VERs remain SIPP-approved. Its no different to a mugger who robs an old lady on the street – worse in fact, at least the mugger isn’t hiding behind an apparent UK Government seal of approval!

202. Thank you Chris Lang. unfortunately none were related to mh carbon initially. although in the first quarter of the year i had many calls from that company asking me to buy more credits. of course i turned them down because currently my exposure to high risk is over 50%…absolutely ridiculous isnt it?..i seriously have no idea how i let it get to this. got drawn in and over enthusiastic about the market. hindsight is a wonderful thing i suppose. perhaps if the investment went well then i would be smiling from ear to ear. i just hope there is a way back for the market or some kind of strategy that i stumble across. time will tell all i suppose.
     to be honest i have kind of resigned myself to losing the money but i will do as you instructed and contact the necessary people. although, these investments arnt covered by any particular body are they?..no compensation scheme etc??… so how would it help??…please excuse my ignorance or lack of knowledge, perhaps thats how i got in all this mess in the first place.
     thank you for your commitment to this page. you have been very determined and persistent in helping us unfortunate ones.

203. Has any one looked into CNI lately are they still trading? on their website they seemed to had been dealing with so many companies in the carbon broking world, were they simply supplying real credits or involved in each company?

204. @Bob B – I’ve written four posts about Carbon Neutral Investments and Paul Seakens (director of Carbon Neutral Investments, which is now called Opus Capital Ltd):

     28 November 2012: Another boiler room scam? Enviro Associates’ “misleading” claims about carbon credits

     8 December 2012: Response from Paul Seakens, Director of Carbon Neutral Investments and Enviro Associates

     27 February 2013: Is the Knifton family behind Carbon Neutral Investments?

     24 April 2013: “Beware when an investment involves Carbon Neutral Investments,” warns the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority

205. @CarbonTrick yes these large companies do trade in CERs, but not with individual investors. The FSA commentary about carbon credits is aimed at ‘consumers’. It should make it absolutely clear that carbon credits are entirely unsuitable for almost all private investors, not start its commentary with a sop to the multi-nationals. Again it just gives the scammers some credence that they can reference to claim they are ‘one of the many reputable firms’.

     @richied Yes we may never get any of our money back. But we need to act, write, complain and force the authorities to pursue the scammers. Fraud is a criminal offence and this is fraud on a massive scale.

206. Like richied I would be interested to hear if anyone has any advice on how to extract at least some value from VER’s. Like so many on this thread I too have been suckered by the MH Carbon pitch. I have told Parker Andrews that I consider MH Carbon to have made misrepresentations to obtain a sale and provided detail to that effect related to my last transaction with them. We’ll see what their response is.

     Any advice on how to sell my VER’s, even at a net loss much appreciated.

207. @Peter
     That’s the million dollar question!
     So far none of us have found any way of selling VERs – unfortunately that is the essence of the scam.

208. Hello all,
     I too got embroiled the VCS market and bought quite heavily from Tullett Brown, who went into liquidation, and invested a smaller amount with AGT. Not surprisingly, when I tried to sell my AGT credits on the AGT website nothing happened – they are just listed as awaiting trade!
     I had only superficial dealings with M.H as Citadel Trustees suggested that I contact them as M.H were taking on new clients! Fortunately Jeff Razziz said they weren’t. However, as a lot of contributors have found, I have been approached by three non-carbon companies promising huge rewards: Elliot Moore for rare metals, Stein House for investing in the commercial building market and Global Diamond Index for the purchasing of coloured diamonds. The interesting thing about Elliot Moore is that their extremely verbose broker promised to liquidate my Carbon Credits IF I invested in the rare earth metals! I was very sorely tempted but, having read all these blogs, have decided to steer well clear. Has anyone else been contacted by any of the above?
     Also a Roy James from Southwest Utilities promised to sell my VERs IF i bought thousands of CERs which he would then combine with my VERs for a sale already in the pipeline. Does this sound familiar?
     Re Carbon-Expert Ltd I would like to think that they are legitimate but I was drawn in quite recently to purchase a small amount of VERs from them with the expectation that these, together with my other holdings would be sold within 6 to 12 months. Like others I was totally frustrated and helpless at the time so agreed to this on the basis of nowhere else to go and it would definitely be my last “investment” into the carbon market. I suspect that, in reality, this is just another scam. Time will tell.
     I hope this information might be useful.
     Mike, I’ll go along with any legal business.

209. Den
     This is all very familiar. Barely a week goes by without some outfit offering to sell my credits if I pay some money – it might be buying some more VERs, CERs, paying an Admin Fee, Legal Fee. Also contacted by Roy James Southwest, but with a different variant of the scam.
     Feel free to contact me directly.

210. Hello Den, Mike,

     I strongly agree with you Mike. I have got the same offers from the above mentioned Companies. I believe that our details are on kind of a data base and they have been handed around.

211. I made enquiries with the Carbon Expert crew when I had serious doubts about MH Carbon. Also received an unsolicited approach from Eco Push (nice name!) based in Gibraltar… this time a female voice (more trusting??). Strange coincidence with the form and style of the EP website, could have been made by the same that designed as MH Carbon was my view. They rang several times looking to sell guaranteed investments in timber (very Eco…). At this time I persuaded MH Carbon to offer my credits for sale (listed somewhere I know not where), then the calls from CE and EP stopped. My theory – links between these outfits and that this is bigger than just MH Carbon. Serious Fraud Office and UK Government doing anything or heads somewhere else?

212. Interesting that Eco Push are based in Gibraltar. When I spoke with this Karl Nichols from Carbon Expert I thought, in our initial conversation on a noisy line, that he said he was based in what sounded like Gibraltar or Portugal. Later it transpired that Carbon Expert is based, it seems, primarily in Spain and I thought I must have misheard. But it now makes me wonder where he was really calling from. As you say, it could be bigger than first meets the eye.

213. Hi,
     I’ve been scammed too. Looking at the ownership structure of MH Carbon and their associated companies.
     Directors are:
     Edward Jonathan Carlton
     CNI (UK) Ltd / Vaeron Finance
     D/O/B 11/4/87
     International House
     1-6 Yarmouth Place
     London
     W1J 7BU

     Paul Michael Seakens
     CNI Clearing Ltd / Vaeron Finance
     D/O/B 12/3/61
     same address as above

     Jeffrey Razaq
     MH Carbon Ltd
     D/O/B 4/4/61
     24E Norwich St
     Dereham
     Norfolk NR19 1BX

     8 St Thomas Street
     London Bridge
     London SE1 9RS

     There must be some way of getting the police involved.

214. @Mike R – Good call on the websites…

     Carbon-Expert’s website was designed by a company called Voodoo Designz in Torremolinos, Spain (scroll down to the bottom of the page and Carbon-Expert’s website is listed in the “Voodoo Designz Top Ten…”).

     EcoPush’s website was registered by Catherine Defoe of Voodoo Designz.

215. @Elliot – What is your source for saying that Edward Carlton and Paul Seakens are directors of MH Carbon? According to duedil.com, Jeffrey Razaq is the only director.

     MH Carbon is in liquidation – I wrote an update in May 2013:

     MH Carbon in liquidation: What to do if you bought carbon credits from MH Carbon

216. Chris, source is COmpanies House. They are directors of associated companies – Vaeron FInance and CNI. Vaeron finance was the company to whom i had to make my last payment payable. CNI were the regitry that has disappeared. (could be mistaken) I can send you the relevant files if required.

217. To Chris Lang:

     Maybe some dots need joining – didn’t CNI used to be called AGT Investments? Coincidence? Mmmmmmmmmm……

218. @Elliot – Thanks for this . See this comment for a list of posts about Carbon Neutral Investments and Paul Seakens’ companies. The most recent post explains what’s happened to CNI:

     “Beware when an investment involves Carbon Neutral Investments,” warns the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority

     Incidentally, CNI (UK) Ltd’s website is back up.

219. @Carbon Calculator – Thanks for this comment. I asked AGT’s CEO Charles Stephenson about this – see question 13 in this post:

     Some questions for Charles Stephenson, CEO of Advanced Global Trading

     13. AGT was listed as one of the companies that Gemmax Solutions provides clearing and settlement services. This service was previously offered by Carbon Neutral Investments (which was previously called AGT Investments Ltd and is now called Opus Capital). Is there any link between AGT (your company ) and CNI, AGT Investments Ltd, Opus Capital and/or the director of these companies, Paul Seakens? A few days ago, the Gemmax Solutions website went offline. Do you know what happened? Which company now provides clearing and settlement services for AGT?

     Stephenson did not reply.

220. @Mike R – Thanks for your comments about EcoPush. I’ve written something about the company and its timber investments in Guyana, here:

     EcoPush: “A leader within the environmental investment sector” or just another scam?

221. Hi,
     Several things – the directors of the companies could be monitoring this so they can always stay ahead of us. I think that working as individuals we have no chance of getting our money back. However, working as a group we might. I think that we need to extract a list of clients from the administrator. Secondly, I think that the Directors behaviour needs to be brought to the authorities’ attention. Won’t dubious business behaviour lead to a potential punishment for the directors? I’ve contacted people within the media. The exchange where some of the credits were supposed to be kept, CNI, was owned within the group. As we know, this exchange has disappeared. Jeffrey Razaq who said that he’d taken over the company in February/March had been a director of MH Carbon since October 2012. He was also a director of MH Carbon Nominees Ltd since the same date.
     I thought that we’d been told that the Nominee Account would protect us if the company went out of business.
     Does anyone have friends/contacts in the legal profession who’d be able to advise?

222. Has anyone received email from or heard of OTC Registry. I received an email today saying that they can act as a registry for Carbon Credits and that for a fee of £199 an individual can register his/her credits with OTC.
     I notice from their website they were founded in 2013.Were they set up to try and con the current victims

223. Hello PS

     Sounds like another World Carbon Marketplace, see their website and previous comments #121

     Save your money, I suspect your suspicions are correct.

224. Mason Hide, montague pitman stockbrokers, wills and co stockbrokers, mh carbon and now as we can see from sources above Green Energy Commodities (TRADE GEC) These are all brokers set up by David James White, Richard James Beese and Gavin Manerowski. DO NOT INVEST over the telephone!!! you will never see your money again.

225. @PS – Yes, OTC Registry looks a lot like a recovery room. The website theotcregistry.com was registered on 6 June 2013. It was registered anonymously.

     Another website, otcregistry.info, was registered on 19 April 2013, by someone calling themselves “Anthony Standforth”, who gives his address as Belize City.

     On its website, OTC Registry makes the following claim: “The OTC Registry is a trading name of OTC Registrars Limited : Registered with Companies House in England and Wales : Co. Number 08411962.”

     But the company is not registered at Companies House, as far as I can tell. There is a dissolved company called The OTC Registrars Limited. And there is a company with the registration number 08411962, but this is called Independent Power Limited.

     OTC Registry looks just as flaky as World Carbon Marketplace – I wrote about that company here:

     Need a carbon exit strategy? Can you trust World Carbon Marketplace?

226. Has anyone bought Carbon Credits from AMG – Acorn Marketing Regeneration. Their website is down, the telephone doesn’t answer & their Company accounts are overdue.

227. Regarding the posts on Hennessey – I was an investor with New Frontier Advisory (NFA). When NFA went into liquidation they sent me an e-mail to say that Hennessey had been “appointed” to take over my relationship. I paid Hennessey UK Pounds 1,950 and have been told they are “working on deals” to sell my credits and recover my investment. Yes they are in Cyprus and the person’s name is James Peterson. I have no idea if it is real or not, but the amount of credits is so large that I have to try. I have been told that carbon credits I purchased from New Frontier Advisory (Relatonship Manager, Benjamin Clarke and MD Charles Denbigh) for which I paid between Pounds 5 and 8 pounds each are only actually worth around UK 30 pence or 40 US cents each !!!

228. Has anyone received an email from The OTC registry regarding setting up a registry service for any VERs and CERs we have bought? I assume this is another scam and waste of money??????

     http://www.theotcregistry.com/ver-owner/4576632265?campaign=wizemail&dm_i=1SH9,1K20A,AJYXRD,5C4C3,1

     Also, has anyone got registry details sent through from Parker Andrews? I havent and sent an email 3 weeks ago.

229. Another one for you.

     Hamilton Carter are offering to help sell all my credits if I buy more Green CERs @6.50 each, current price on Reuters is 40 cents. There is apparently a secured deal to sell all credits at around £10-£12 in September but I don’t believe it.

     Has anyone been contacted by Hamilton Carter or got involved?

230. @Ash – OTC Registry looks a lot like a recovery room – see this comment above.

     The Financial Conduct Authority web page has some advice for what to do if you are scammed. Step 1: “Stop sending money”. See this comment.

231. http://Www.tradegec.com is green energy commodities website

232. @Revenge – Thanks for this. I agree that Green Energy Commodities looks more than a little boiler-roomish and its website is very similar to MH Carbon’s, but can you provide any evidence to back up your statements? Three questions:

     1. How do you know that James Hoile is a partner at MH Carbon?

     2. According to duedil.com, Gavin Manerowski was a director of MH Carbon and MH Carbon Nominees Limited. How do you know that he is the owner of Green Energy Commodities?

     3. How do you know that “all the major con artist from MH Carbon are there”?

     Thanks!

233. don’t send money to recover money especially if they are asking you to pay $6.50 for something that is actually worth 40 cents .what proof do they have about the deal . all that is going to happen is your going to lose more money don’t send any more money .anyone wants your credits tell them to take a percentage after transactions take place

234. Chris thanks for your help on CNI very interesting reading it just seems like so many firms were connected to them.

     I have seen on this companies website (below)
     http://carbontradexchange.com/exchange/sell-carbon-credits

     That credits are being sold for £2.40 upwards? this company looks like they have been around for a long time, why are these credits sold for this price if everyone is saying VCS credits are worthless? This company seems to be linked to alot of leading authorities in the carbon arena, and they are actively promoting credits at this price? also why are some offsetting companies selling credits to businesses for £6 upwards and getting away with it? I also read your comment from a spokes person at VCS who doesn’t seem to share the same view as some on this site as worthless? isnt the ratio of companies buying VCS credits more than ever in larger quantities? I am looking at all the facts to why I ever looked into this area in the first place, was it all lies?

235. i had hoped that after all this time there would have been a solution or at least a worth while strategy to sell (what i am led to believe) these worthless carbon credits. it seems that everyone is talking alot of hot air (excuse the pun). i have come to the conclusion that i have almost definitely lost my money. sadly i dont think i can put this down as capital losses and it seems that it has just been a brutal lesson and above all i know it was down to my own GREED that i initially got involved with this scheme.
     whatever i have left it is now in high yielding stocks a couple of bonds.
     i have accepted that i was chasing a dream of 30-40% which on a risk/reward ratio is totally un achievable. the sooner we all realise our greed got us into this mess and that its a dead investment the better. there is no doubt i am bitter, but i have grown sick of hearing these so called ‘strategies’ or ‘exits’. it was a bitter pill for me to swallow (accepting i invested into a highly speculative area that didnt come to fruition) but i cant keep torturing myself with the hope i may someday get my money back.

236. To Bob B:

     Carbon Trade Exchange provides a platform for registered members (buyers and sellers) to transact business. It is totally down to the seller what price they ask for the carbon credits they are offering and these prices differ wildly, from less than a $1 to over $10. It all depends on vintage (when the credits were first awarded), the type of project they came from, and country or origin. Ultimately, it’s demand and supply driven. Corporate off-setters will pay way more for REDD credits from Brazil generated this year, than Indian wind power credits from 2008. It’s that simple!

237. Has anyone any experience of a firm HSL Aquisitions. They are offering to sell my carbon credits to a firm in China at a price which would on paper give me a profit but they say I would have to pay up front Chinese withholding tax which they say is necessary before Chinese funds can leave the country. I am suspicious!¬ I can ‘t see why the tax cannot be deducted from the proceeds of the sale before remitting the funds to the UK.

238. Just to add my story to the list, i bought credits through MH Carbon back at the end of 2010 – contact was Jon Cocks who appears from reading this site one of the founders. He advised getting a piece of a very exciting market and looking to sell out in 12-18 months – all seemed very plausable. But then you don’t hear from them aver again!. 2 years down the road and i get a phone call from Clark Carbon spoke to 2 different guys James Davis & Mark Richardson and whilst doubting them all the way along that the profits were unrealistic after numerous phone calls and e-mails reassuring me etc etc i fell for it and handed over £5K for an extra 10,000 GCER which i needed to purchase to get the deal – looking back what an idiot i was! These guys appear to know their stuff and they are very persuasive. They even keep in contact with you after you’ve sent the money which makes you think you haven’t cocked up. There was some rhubarb about not being able to get hold of Carbon-ex but not to worry they would sort it. The auction they told me was 27th February and surprise surprise no money was forthcoming!! No reply by phone or e-mail. One of the e-mails i said if i ever get hold of them i’ll ring their f*****g necks! After the dust settled i was approached by Carbon-ex (about 3 months ago) offering to sell providing i purchased further credits approx £6K. Again the guy was friendly and persuasive but this time i sent him packing! Now in the last few days comes Southwest Utilities in Gibraltar. This actually is the most convincing one yet – explained i’d been scammed etc and therefore was very sceptical etc etc. He can guarantee selling at £8.00 per credit on the 30th Sept. There is an arbitrage fee of £2495. This would ensure selling all my credits and give me a nice £10k profit. Again very friendly/convincing but have sent him packing. I wonder how many more companies will try this. I’ll be very interested to phone SWU after 30th Sept to see if they are still there. The saga continues.

239. In reply to john duncan (above) regarding HSL Aquisitions (should be spelled Acquisitions)(#238) 20 June 2013 at 8:58 pm.

     It is a scam: Look at the address in the Contact section of their website. I have copied/pasted it exactly below.

     Bank of east Asia harbour view centre
     56,Gloucester Road Wan Chai Hong Kong

     There are upper case letters missing from the top line. The comma after 56 is in the wrong place, it should be after the word “Road”. Also, note that it does not say which floor or unit number in the building. In other words thay have just taken a large and prestigious office building in HK and given a half-baked address to try and give a sense of legitimacy. Don’t touch them!!!

240. I have also been approached by diamond companies. The latest says that voluntary carbon credits in Chinese and Korean projects will expire in 2015 and become valueless. They offer – provided I buy a diamond – to provide an exit strategy fro my credits albeit at a very low price. Any views on this?

241. Anybody got any info on Southwest Utilities in Gibraltar – this guy doesn’t give up, like a dog on the end of your leg !

242. You will not see any returns with carbon credits ..you will not see any returns with fine wines and diamond and there’s a new commodity called renewable energy certificates .,.works same way as carbon credits it focuses on renewable energy ..Green energy commodities which is owned by James Hoile and Gavin maernovksi ..who owned mh carbon own that aswell

243. Answer to David #242

     I was aproached from Southwest Utilities about two weeks ago. They were very persistant to help me to sell my carbon credits.

     But: there was a 2000 Pound administration fee to pay up front. I only can advice to anyone else who was contacted by this company, don´t pay any money!

     I believe that there are the same people behind this scam from companies like Clark Carbon Capital and Edgebrook Carbon Invest. Exact the same strategy.

244. can anybody tell me a real, registered forest carbon trader..or any reliable and trustworthy company.thanks!

245. Hi John Duncan I have heard the same. Apparently Voluntary Carbon Credits are going to expire and become worthless by the end of 2015. However there are various sources which say that all voluntary carbon credits are useless. #241

246. No info but had the same experience from this bunch. ‘Phoned up time after time with offers to use my existing Carbon Credits by buying CERs to end up with a slight loss overall but none of it made any sense. If I’d just bought the CERs at some vey low price & then “sold them on in September” I would have made an £18K profit and still had my existing Carbon Credits. Utter tosh!

247. The fraudsters are moving into the CER market, which has slightly different implications as this is a regulated market.
     Don’t buy from anyone who purports to be able to package these with your VERs to sell on, whether they are supposed to be GCERs, CRTs etc. These all trade at between about 35p and 70p

248. @Mike IFXBG has the following notice at the top of its website:

     Attention: We are not affiliated with the website IFXBG.net, they are running some fraudulent activities. This matter is under investigation.

     See also this comment from IFXBG.

249. If anyone has actually purchased CERs (or CRTs) and are willing to go on record, please contact me. I have a contact with a financial news agency who wants to write a story. As CERs are regulated their mis-selling is likely to cause a greater stir with the UN and governments and help to blow the whole thing open.

250. Hi Chris
     I got a call from http://www.willbrookcapital.com offering alternative investments.They can sell my ver’s but no timescale.And for me to email all details re ver’s. BUT of course I would have to invest with them.They only reg. as a ltd co last year yet on their website they state the wealth of experience they have.Chris have you heard of them or did anyone get contacted by this company.Yet another company has been sold my details.Think I will have to change my telephone no.

251. I have Invested in Carbons, Rare Metals ,Diamonds, and Gold,
     I have not had a return,or delivery of my investments in some cases.
     The companys have been closed down or disappeared off the map.
     They always want more money to come aboard !
     The Whole business stinks, and the Govenment should have had more
     control over these swindlers and issed licences.They have factory
     inspectors. so why not Company inspectors. The office of Fair Trading
     can only shut the door after the horse has bolted. Then we lose our
     money settling all the unpaid tax and debts.In one case the salesmen
     were paid 10k and others 25k a month! of our money. Buy Premium Bonds

252. I have just been cold called by a firm called William Perkins http://www.william-perkins.co.uk offering to exit my VER’s if I buy some CER’s.
     Sounds just like all the other scams.
     Anyone heard of this lot.
     Website and firm only a few months old

253. Anyone know how Action Fraud / City of London Police are getting on?

     This has just been published.

     http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23421571

     An insight into the scammers, the consequences of their callous greed, and eventually justice.

254. I have been approached by Wellz Zable (Wells fargo were cowboys??). They want details of my carbon credits with a deadline of 31st July (no pressure then) for a sale (?????) at the end of November. They have been trading since this time in 2012, and have an address in Mayfair (serviced offices??) Another part of the tangled web do you think??? Anyway, not sure about how good they are if they call late on a Friday for info required by close of business same day.

255. I bought into this carbon market in 2009, after investing over 100,000 pounds i got nervous when i kept getting excuses on selling them i eventually sold them 2 moths ago.I got my money back with a little profit THANK GOD,
     i learned a lot about the market and the different offsets, after calling at least 20 brokers in the uk and getting no where as they are not regulated here or some nonsense i got through to a company abroad and got shot of them i would suggest to anyone who was in my position on here to do the same.

256. David J. I and many others would be interested to hear more about how you achieved this.

257. David, As this is the first time that I, and probably everyone else, has heard of a genuine sale of Credits, it is inevitable that you will be inundated with requests for details of who, where, contacts etc. Can you publish these or at least sent to Mike Steele, who is coordinating a project to pull together as large a group of credit owners as is possible.
     Was your sale helped by the scale of the credits that you owned, did you sell them direct or through a broker…..
     Hope to hear your reply soon; you may not know the excitement you have caused…
     Bob

258. David J, would you be able to provide a bit more information, the brokers name, the basis of the deal? It would be helpful to know which credits you held. How were you paid and was this secure for you?

259. Last Friday I got a letter from Citadel Trustees Ltd stating that they wanted a “Custodian Annual Fee” of £8.10 paid to them. They listed just one of the projects that I bought carbon credits in, through World Carbon (then renamed Worldwide Commodities) and processed through Eco-Synergies Nominees. All the other projects I invested in were also processed through Eco-Synergies, but there is no mention of them.

     Is this just another way they are trying to extort money from scammed investors? Nowhere at any point in the past was I made aware of any annual custodian fees, nor did I sign any document agreeing to pay for this.

     I believe that this bunch of people are closely linked to the fraudsters that sold the worthless carbon credits to me in the first place.

     Any advice from anybody on how to proceed with this?

260. Citadel Trustees are a genuine FSA regulated company and Eco-Synergies Nominees are owned by them as the repository for your Credits; Eco-Synergies Ltd was another Co in the Credit supply chain [supplied to World Carbon etc] that was closed by liquidators [http://www.bcassociates.uk.com], but is nothing to do with the Nominees Co of the same name.
     The reason that they have the same name is that Citadel deliberately chose it because they only hold Credits from Eco Synergies Ltd’s Brokers. I am not explaining this very well. but just accept that it was a convenient name. They, Hutchinsons, own dozens of Nominee Companies, mostly in the property business.

     If you hold certificates from Eco-Synergies Nominees then they exist there, and if you want confirmation, write to Anna Rickard who is very helpful.

     You should have received a letter from Citadel informing you that they would charge a Custodian Fee, after a year, which I believe is around 0.001% of the purchase value. You should check with them how it is calculated. The problem they have is that if all their clients decide that there is no value and just walk away, they will have difficulty in recovering the fees, so they are currently trying to put together a scheme to help a group of holders dispose of their credits. They hold the key to the database of names, which as you will know if you have read Mike Steele’s comments here, is difficult to compile through this website alone. Obviously there are Data Protection issues but they are in a position to contact Holders and put the idea to them.
     I cannot add any more as that is as far as the discussion has progressed.
     BobT

261. Hello Milan C,
     I too got a payment request from Citadel Trustees for three of my holdings, all bought from Tullett Brown who have been forced into liquidation. However Tullett Brown informed me before they went bust that Citadel Trustees would be making a charge from the end of 2013. I’m not sure whether to pay this or not – mine adds up to £27 – and for what? Worthless credits. Does anyone have any suggestions?

     Frank

262. @Milan C – Thanks for this. There’s a post about Worldwide Commodity Partners (and Citadel Trustees) here:

     Worldwide Commodity Partners Limited: Another carbon credit boiler room?

     Perhaps you should ask Citadel Trustees why they need a “Custodial Annual Fee” and where you agreed to this (but see also Bob Telford’s comment above). You could ask the Financial Conduct Authority about this – Citadel Trustees is registered with the FCA. You could also write to Tony Hetherington at the Daily Mail – he wrote about Citadel Trustees in March 2012:

     Watch out for hot air over carbon sales

263. Hello Bob,

     That makes sense. I’ll pay the fees for this year & see what transpires.
     On another note has anyone heard of Wellzzabble? I got a series of calls over the last two days offering to sell my Carbon Credits for £7.80 per credit within 3 months BUT I would have to purchase £5,000 of credits at £7.90 before they could “go ahead:”. I offered to GIVE my credits to them & take 50% of the sale value but this was received with disdain!! Are we surprised?

     Frank

264. Frank

     I was approached by Wellz Zable. The “business proposal” was that on the same day, I provide details of all my credits, serial numbers, purchase price etc. They would then “assign a risk rating” and would take on my credits for a sale in November to a corporate client at up to 9:00 per credit. I did not respond and got another call the following week asking why. I was told that they have apparently generated another exit for January. The way I believe they want the risk rating to work, is that I pay them in advance the value of the risk for a future sale. I declined. I was asked if I was happy to write off my investment! Do I believe there would be a future sale and that this company is any different to so many listed above? Answers on a postcard…..

265. BobT’s comments are on the mark. Eco-synergies would have appointed Citadel because they are authorised by the FCA to operate Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes. They then create Eco Synergies Nominees to be the ‘holder’ of the credits. So brokers using Eco as their ‘wholesaler’ would generally use that service. If your contract says you have to pay a Custodian Fee you should pay it; if it doesn’t don’t. I’m dubious about Citadel’s plans to exit investors.

     But I can’t find Eco Synergies Nominees as an account holder on either of the APX or Markit registries so exactly in what name the credits are held on the registries remains a mystery.

266. David J. As to my knowledge you haven’t commented here before, and suddenly tell us that you have sold your credits through a company abroad (I note your post was at 2:34 am) there is going to be a great deal of scepticism about this. If it is genuine then there would be no reason not to enlighten us further. Failing that one would suspect that it is either a hoax, or part of a recovery room scam.

267. Mike,
     Just to confirm that it is not Citadel who are proposing an exit plan; they [may] have found an investor [maybe substantial] who is interested in taking up the challenge. All Citadel can do is assist in contacting investors on their database, to do what Mike Steele is trying to do; that is to pull as large a group as possible together.
     I will enlarge on the strategy of forming a large group later, but I am sure that you can see some of the immediate benefits.
     BobT

268. HAs any one any knowledge of Hamilton Carter They claim to be able to exit me in a contract they have with Deutsche Bank to settled in November. 3 options granting various levels of profit. They also claim that VER’s will be worthless very soon. They also claim the credits sold by MH are on the VCS register.

269. @Alan – I commented on Hamilton Carter on 11 June 2013, here. It sounds like a boiler room/recovery room operation. It was registered in November 2012 as Hamilton Carter (UK) Ltd (It’s now called Hamilton Carter Assets). One director. No previous experience in carbon/energy trading.

     How did Hamilton Carter get your contact details?

     Did Hamilton Carter show you the contract they have with Deutsche Bank? Thought not. You could always ask Deutsche Bank about this.

     What evidence did Hamilton Carter provide to back up the statement that VERs will be “worthless very soon”? The price of VERs varies depending on the type of project, when the credits were issued and who is buying/selling them. See this post for an explanation of what VERs cost:

     How much does a carbon credit cost? “There is no such thing as a generic price,” says ClimateCare’s Edward Hanrahan

     The credits sold by MH Carbon may well be on the VCS register, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are worth very much. Unfortunately the credits that you have been sold are very likely to be almost worthless.

270. Has anyone come across Southwest Utilities (with an address at 207/209 Main St, Suite 4, 2nd Floor, Gibraltar, “Head of Procurement” Noel Murray)?

     I was telephoned by them out of the blue with an offer to try and arrange the sale of my credits. They obviously obtained my contact details from MHC at some point. I went along with listening to their spiel (in anticipation of being asked to part with more money) with a mischievous view to seeing what their reaction would be when I asked them to take a percentage of the sale value instead of money up-front.

     Surprisingly I wasn’t (yet) asked for a further investment – they just looked for details of the credits I wanted to sell. I’m sure this is just a way of sucking me in and the ‘requirement’ for a further investment will follow at some point, but I just wondered whether anyone else has come across them or knows anything about them?

271. @Mike S – There have been several comments Southwest Utilities on REDD-Monitor. See my response here (and click the link in the comment) and see Derek’s comment here.

272. Noel telephoned me a few weeks ago. They asked for details of my credits, and claimed to have found them on a register. The number found was higher than my current holding! They required me to pay a refundable security cost of £0.40p per VER prior to selling all the VER’s @£8.50 each. When I asked why the refundable amount was not held in escrow, the contact went silent!!

273. Hello Mike,
     I was approached by this bunch in May trying to sell me CERs which, in “about 9 months time” would sell with my holdings of VERs, at a slight loss. Apart from the extremely high pressure salesmanship – I don’t think he stopped talking for 15 minutes – the maths presented were ludicrous!
     Ignore this lot.

     Den

274. Please can people be a bit more positive about this if it was a long term. Investment we would not be here would we I know what people have been told about these exit dates so have I and my partner has as well but we have to be hopefully and hope we can exit these so that is why I am very positive I here a lot of negative things on here so let us be more hopeful

275. @Alan: I had a similar experience (although with a £4.15 exit price), with the same 40p ‘tender security’ charge, to exit in October.

     One interesting (and perhaps useful) thing to note is that they ‘audited’ my holding and came up with a figure 3,000 higher than I expected.

     As it happens, some (but not all) of my credits were bought through MH Carbon, and the liquidators have sent a list of (probable) projects I am holding. On this list is a project I was supposed to have sold – the funds being ‘reinvested’ elsewhere. The total of allegedly ‘sold’ credits was (you guessed it) 3,000!

     So SouthWest Utilities either did a proper audit, or had access to MH Carbon data. Who knows?

     PS. And finally, my credits with MHC were moved to CDC Climate and Reco Environmental Partners without my knowledge.

276. Julie p, might be a good idea to read through your comment before you post it.

277. hi i am receiving calls from companies asking details of my credits and what projects the credits were bought in.they want to confirm if i actually own the credits and once confirmed they will use corporate companies to help exit my credits . what i want to know is if they get confirmation of my credits on a register is there any way they would be able to sell them without me knowing and then disappear with my money. .i am a bit wary and nervous about giving any details but then at the same time how can anyone sell them for us if they don’t have any information.i did not give any registration numbers (i don’t have any). we receive so many calls promising exits .how will we differentiate between the recovery room scams from any genuine exits that may come along .i am also getting mixed messages on one hand i hear the credits will be worthless in a few years and on the other hand it is advised to hold on to them as the prices will rise in the long term .if anyone has answers to any of the above issues please comment as i am looking for some peace of mind thanks

278. I did post a comment. On here warning people about wezzzable in Mayfair so I don’t take kindly me d ok

279. I have been contacted several times by Green Energy Commodities who talked about different phases of carbon credits. They sent me a long report on the carbon market by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu ltd to support their claim that CERs issued now as part of phase 3 will improve in value over the next 12-15 months. Has anyone else been similarly approached?

280. @akbar – Any company ringing you up to tell you about an exit strategy is going to be a scam. I can say this for two reasons. First, no genuine carbon trading company would cold call you (ask yourself how all these companies offering exit strategies got your contact details in the first place). Second, genuine carbon trading companies would know that your carbon credits are near worthless, that there is no secondary market for VERs and that CERs are currently trading at well under €1.

     Once you are the victim of a fraud (which I’m afraid you are), you will be contacted by other companies looking to defraud you again. I’m afraid that’s what is now happening.

281. Yes you are right Chris. Once we have been a victim of fraud other companies are trying it again.
     The latest company who tried to “help me” with my carbon credits is Alternative Markets http://www.alternativemarkets.co.uk
     Same story again. I have to purchase an extra thousands of pounds of CER to get out of my old VERs.
     I declined very strongly. They tried to get me involved in an film investment.
     A film called “Riders on the Storm” based on the story of Green Peace with George Clooney, Matt Damon and Tom Hanks.
     They asked a sum between GBP 5000-10 000. I would receive 25% interest plus royalities. They seem to be never giving up. Carbon Credits, Rare Earth, Fine Wine are out. Film Investment is the new scam.

     http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hanwood-holdings-michael-caine-never-2024079

282. @Art – Thanks for this. I wrote about Alternative Markets here:

     360 Invest Group and Alternative Markets: Exit strategy of converting near worthless VERs to a CER market that is “walking on one leg”

283. I have just received a letter from “Gemmax Solutions” saying that, as they bought CNI’s clearing and settlement business, they are now the custodians of my credits.

     What accompanied the letter caught my attention though – it is an “offer” to retire some of my credits by allowing me to “offset your own personal and household emissions created by heating, vehicles, travel and/or any other emissions you may be responsible for”. They very generously informed me that there is no charge for this service!

     It only goes to show how farcical this whole situation has become, and is a real slap in the face for those who have been scammed.

284. Hi there
     Can Akbar please contact Julie p on here at all I need to talk with him please

285. hi julie how can i help you

286. i have been contacted by a company offering shares in recs .what are they .a new scam does anyone have any knowledge or experience in these.they are offering shares at $11 per certificate for a project .caprock wind power project.company behind the project cielo wind backed by eacc ltd and dbs bank . although i don’t intend investing any money in the project i just want to find out about it .

287. I think RECs are the new carbon credit. I was also offered these and could find no data to back up the claims. I would stay away from them.

288. I have been contacted by another company offering an exit Wellz Zable.
     Any one heard of them? Have not yet received details of the deal.

289. Hi Alan,

     Yeah they called me last week saying there was an exit in North America and that they had initially had five exits but now only 2 and that I had to either pay money and they would exit me later this year or they could cash me in for £1.12 a credit but would not make money on that deal whereas they would if I paid a commission.

     They pulled the same old con that time was running out as were the companies offering exits and thus they try to make you believe you have to jump on the wagon now or lose out. Typical con trick.

     I think the guy I spoke to was called John Roberts but when I told him there was nothing to be made with credits he feigned surprise and then said he would call me Tuesday am. I made it clear no more money would be coming from my direction. Needless to say, no contact on Tuesday!!

     Same old story, same old con tell them to piss off.

     Regards,

     JR

290. I have just received the following note from the liquidator.

     Dear Sir,

     Thank you for your email regarding MH Carbon Ltd. We apologise for any delay in replying, as we have been investigating the Company and its books and records.

     Unfortunately we have not been provided with any carbon credit certificates. Furthermore, we have no information in the books and records as to the carbon credit registration numbers.

     Further to our investigations it appears that in the period from September 2010 to October 2012 the Company bought and sold credits on its own account and we have been in contact with the various registries to ascertain whether any of those credits are still registered to the Company. After October 2012, the Company changed its business practice and acted as a commission-only broker, and so any credits registered after this point should be owned by and registered in the name of individual clients.

     We have been in contact with the three registries, Eco-Synergies Limited, CDC Climate and Reco Environmental Partners and have been informed of the following:

     Eco-Synergies Limited is currently in Liquidation. It appears that credits may be held by Citadel Trustees Limited (http://www.citadeltrustees.com/contact.php) on their behalf.

     CDC Climate is no longer trading and we have been informed that all credits held with this registry have been transferred. We do not have any further details in respect of who the credits were transferred to.

     Reco Environmental Partners do not hold carbon credits for individuals.

     We are unable to provide advice on how best to sell your carbon credits and we suggest you take independent financial advice on this.

     Please note we have now exhausted all avenues in respect of locating your carbon credits. Therefore, we advise clients to contact the individual registries for further information. As investigations into clients’ carbon credits do not fall within the remit of our work as Liquidator of the Company, we will now be focussing our investigations solely on dealing with the Company and its directors. Details of these investigations remain confidential.

     Please note that we hold no further information in respect of clients’ carbon credits and we do not intend to respond to individual investors in respect of their carbon credits.

     Help Please

     Can anyone please advise/help me on how I should go about tracing my holding and how I can get hold of my certificates for them. I hold 93 86 MW Hydro Project in Himachal Pradesh and 523 WHR CDM CPP India Project. I think the liquidators can’t help any further.

     Or is the general consensus with these VCUs is that they are now a waste of time and I should not pursue the matter. Like all of you, I have been scammed but feel that I should not waste any more of my energies behind this of there is no scope of finding the holdings or even selling them on. I feel I have made a big mistake and learnt a lesson.

     Thank you

     Umesh

291. @Alan – I wrote about Wellz Zable last week:

     Is there a link between Wellz Zable and Carbon Neutral Investments?

292. Just as well that I have just read all your comments!! I originally bought £20,000 VERs from MHCarbon, but 12,000 of this was in a last trade in January last, much to my misgivings but he was so persuasive of exit in March I paid up, as my other 5 trades had been c£3.5 each. From then I only had contact with CJ, who seemed genuine about his mistaken buy of MHCarbon, but odd no due diligence.
     I have been contacted by most of the companies mentioned, and succumbed to EliotMoore to buy £4,000 REMs and EnviroAssociates to buy £2000 Spot VERs for them to sell my VERs. Then back came Wellzable on whom I put the phone down and Hamilton Carter, who wants me to buy £3,000 CERs for an exit on November 1st at a price of £8 per VER – all seems reasonable, but lacks credibility? Should I now stop digging a large financial hole?

293. @mervyn – Sorry to hear about this. I posted some suggestions for people who believe they are the victims of fraud here: http://bit.ly/18bbQO8.

294. I had a cold call recently from Wellz Zargo. Much the same content/ feedback as Mike R as 8th Aug..When I googled the company I found some interesting news. Their only Director is Christopher Marcell Newell. He was also a Director of Walberg Capital Ltd who operated a land banking scam and went into
     liquidation last year and shortly before setting up Wallz Zargo.

295. Hi Alan,

     Yeah Wellz Able they called me last week saying there was an exit in North America and that they had initially had five exits but now only 2 and that I had to either pay money and they would exit me later this year or they could cash me in for £1.12 a credit but would not make money on that deal whereas they would if I paid a commission.

     They pulled the same old line that time was running out as were the companies offering exits and thus they try to make you believe you have to jump on the wagon now or lose out.

     I told him there was nothing to be made with credits he feigned surprise and then said he would call me Tuesday am. I made it clear no more money would be coming from my direction. Needless to say, no contact on Tuesday!!

     Now I have had two calls from William Perkins saying I can exit my VERs in conjunction with CERs as long as I buy them. Again a lot of chat about Osborne and Governmental legislation. I asked how he knew about this “legislation” and where I could obtain it to check and read and he said it was not published! I asked him how he could possibly know about something not in the public domain…………….hmmm.

     I had to listen to a lot of confusing gook from this guy and remain absolutely unconvinced that anyone can exit.

     Avoid them like the plague and hope someone or an agency bring them to account. Also, avoid doing any telephone trades with any company you do not know. If something is as sure fire as they tell you then ask them why they don’t invest themselves

     Regards,

     JR

296. Further to my recent comment – I was talking to Tom of Wellzable (wellz Zargo ?) his ‘line’ was certainly original. He was leaving the company in November and has 2 trades left and was keen for me to take up such a good opportunity. as long as I paid up £5000! Hamilton Carter were also disapponted. Also alas Eliot Moore seem to have disappeared from their Piccadilly address with no forwarding address with my £4,300.

297. Has anyone heard of Sebastian Arkwright company? I have just had a call from a Ian Matthews, and he says he can tell me if he can sell any of the credits on my list, when I send them. No money upfront, only the usual 2% fee on sales. His company deals in gold and diamonds. Adam, his senior, is to ring me on Monday with details on how to proceed.

298. Just Contacted by another new bunch of boiler house non regulated investment scammers called Willbrook Capital who I do not see mentioned above or on Whocallsme.com As usual not FSA/FCA Regulated, no compliance officer if you call them back, website is always the same old packages software thing with a glossy looking pic and some stock price tickers.

     I have got well and truly on the list for these scammers to call since early 2012 (I think some Indian fake market research people put me down as a prospect when I made the mistake of engaging with them part way through a fake survey to try to find out who they were) and just take great pleasure in wasting as much of the time of people like Rod James from Carbon Equities or Simon Johnson from Enviro Associates (who even admitted he was calling me from his apartment balcony in Ibiza watching the setting sun) as I can but I have never even come close to investing (same with the vintage wine guys who I find at least make for more interesting conversations about which wine is nicest to drink).

     Clearly I lack the deadlly sucker gene that some of you so sadly seem to be afflicted by and on which these conmen rely. Of course if you yourself have a lot of money and have got a lot of it in other easy get quick rich ways (eg Central London property) perhaps it is more easy to separate you from money you can afford to lose.

     The bottom line is that as the number of calls I get shows (despite my TPS registration of many years) and the sad stories on this thread also show it is high time the lazy and utterly supin ICO addressed all call centre activities in this area and imposed some very big fines on the perpetrators. The Police should also be making raids to shut these people down and put a few of them in jail. Once their current easy get rich quick schemes become too high risk to be worth the candle they will go elsewhere. Instead the ICO only seems to worry about call centres making TPS breaching calls by looking at the numbers of calls made so spends all its time worrying about PPI stuff where the victims generally have smaller losses than those reported above.

     Perhaps in government and regulator circles there is however a perception that those stung by carbon and rare earth metal scammers can generally afford to get stung whereas those who lose most of a potentially legitimate PPI reclaim to scam claims agents are generally quite poor people with lots of debts.

     Either way I do hate these scammers and hope that sooner or later we will hear of some vigorous action by the authorities against them.

299. Hi Mervyn,

     I have not had Sebastian Arkwright call me (yet) but if my name is on the list that seems to be going around I surely will at some stage. We will all be awaiting an update from you about the strategy they suggest. Keep us posted if you can. In the meantime I shall do some due diligence…………….

300. ………….and it did not take too long.

     The offices are near Green Park and are serviced offices. I have found Sebastian Arkwright Ltd online and this (if it is the same company, the web site does not give any detail of the company registration no) is what it states;

     Company SEBASTIAN ARKWRIGHT LTD is a Private Limited Company, registration number 07841152, established in United Kingdom on the 9. November 2011. The company is now active. The company has been in business for 1 year and 10 months. This company used to be called ST. SWITHINS INVESTMENTS LIMITED. The company is based on 188 QUEENS ROAD, BUCKHURST HILL, ESSEX, ENGLAND, IG9 5BD. Business of the company SEBASTIAN ARKWRIGHT LTD by SIC and NACE code is “99999 – Dormant Company”. There are 8 company documents available. The most recent document is “COMPANY NAME CHANGED ST. SWITHINS INVESTMENTS LIMITED” from the 2013.04.22. The latest accounts are filed up to 2012.11.30. The latest annual return was filed up to 2012.11.09. We do not have any information about the company SEBASTIAN ARKWRIGHT LTD being in liquidation. The company has 1 director. The total number of directors was so far 2. The total number of secretaries was 1. Data on this page were generated on the 2013.09.20.

     I have looked at the web site and it looks very professional apart from an odd error with word spacing, which makes me edgy. The blurb about the Emissions is old hat and I would be careful. Most financial websites give you more info as to how to contact them with you having to put all your details to them and expecting a call back.

     Hmmm…….

301. All. Has anyone had a call from a long established credible company? Let me guess. No. Like many of you, I keep getting calls from these unpleasant scammers. They are crooks. Once on a list, unfortunately, we remain on the list. They have no-one else to call and the lists get passed around. They pretend to be different people, striking up new companies when needed. These people care only about conning you out of your cash, the more the better. Everything they tell you is fabricated nonsense pushed with a well developed script designed to make you feel inadequate or that you are somehow missing a great opportunity. The script changes and as we know, fraudsters will get increasingly sophisticated and cunning to extract you hard earned money. Tell then where to go! I am now thinking of changing my phone number out of sheer boredom with these jokers.

302. Mike R,

     I totally agree with all your observations about these calls and the fact that absolutely everything is fabricated. It is very sad to see that some people on here who have been scammed still do not seem to realise this and are now looking for good guy scammers who will give them an exit strategy. The point about these credits is that they do appear to have some worth or necessity value to companies creating emissions when they are first created as they have to offset their emissions in some way. However once they have been bought first time for their original purpose they have absolutely no second hand value after that to the world at large.

     It is very sad to see some who have been scammed still hoping that there are white knight carbon traders out there who will give their worthless pieces of paper some value. They still don’t seem to realise that this is a deception as completely absolute in nature as that of the Emperor’s New Clothes.

     Fortunately for me in this context I have always been a natural cynic since my late teens and whilst it may not have been good for me in other aspects of life it does mean I have always been able to smell out a conman a mile off. Sadly those of a more trusting nature, who probably have more enjoyable lives in other ways and who are better at forming romantic relationships than me (since I always suspect the worst in any potential partner), have fallen for the scammers hook, line and sinker just as these personality types have also fallen for similar conmen who were previously selling worthless Timeshares in apartment blocks that had not yet been built and that probably never would.

303. hi .what is a “corporate crest account ” and how does it work. i have been offered an exit by a professional exit strategist .he wants me to open an account to hold funds until completion of transaction .this is for their security just in case i back off at the last minute and the deal does not go through . i will receive my funds for the sales first and my deposit back a week later.once i have received my money back in full i will be invoiced for a fee of 3% for the whole transaction.it sounds good but its the parting with the money thats holding me back .any advice

304. No idea how or what this vehicle of a “corporate crest account”, is but ask your local bank. I would be vary wary of putting money up front for anything in this game.

     Who is the “professional exit strategist’ and what company does he work for? Just the title make me think it is a non-professional scam artiste con.

     More details would be helpful but let us all know what he/she is suggesting.

305. akbar,

     Be very careful this sounds like yet another attempt to scam someone who has already been scammed to me. Why else do you think they want more money up front? If they just wanted access to the title of your currently worthless assets in order to sell them on and signed some contract that they would transfer you any money they did make from them less x per cent commission there would be far less to worry about.

     Remember the old adage that a large number of you here who have been scammed have so sadly ignored – Namely “a fool and their money are easily parted”. See http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-fool-and-his-money-are-soon-parted.html

306. Another company to avoid is SE Future investments York Street London, they are Gold, Silver CRT etc they are another take your money and run brokers. I had all the speal as usual about CRTs how great they were and even there exit dates tied in with the Cap Trade Auction dates. They seem legit but are exactly the same as all the others. The figures they quote are correct but the exits are just made up lies and should be avoided at all costs. If in any doubt go onto the official site for the California Market and speak to one of the US brokerage who deal in this market and they will give you the real truth on how’s it’s done and traded. Avoid this company with a passion and all it’s Carbon Salesman not brokers.

307. Calls coming in thick and fast this week.

     Had a very nice lady from firstadministration call me (they are based in Gibraltar) saying she would like to help with an exit and I have now sent details of my holdings through to them and I now await a call back.

     Now a nice chap from the VCS registry (or so he claimed but the number was withheld so I have no way of checking) has called and he has passed on my details to one (or possibly all) of the following companies………….so has anyone else had a call and does anyone know about these companies (I will not be holding my breath in hope of an exit!). He says he will call me back next week to see how I get on with whosoever calls me from one of them. Sounds very strange to me

     They are

     Carbon Europe
     Blue Registry
     ECO2
     Windward Capital

     Busy week fielding calls but I like to listen to the explanation, ask questions appear polite and interested and just see where they want to go. It has become a sport really and they are paying for the call after all.

308. @Jon – Thanks for this. I’d be very surprised if that was really a “nice chap from the VCS registry”. The VCS Registry has a warning about investing in carbon credits on its website:

     Should I invest in VCUs?

     Unlike instruments approved for use in compulsory carbon cap and trade programs, no entities are required to purchase and retire voluntary carbon offsets. Entities that voluntarily seek to offset their GHG emissions footprint (such as corporations, governments and individuals), project developers, traders and investors are active participants in the VCU market. Therefore, there is little ability to accurately forecast demand and supply in the voluntary carbon offset space. As a result, APX strongly believes that VCUs are not suited for individuals to target as a short, medium or long-term investment. Our view is shared by the UK Financial Services Authority: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/consumerinformation/scamsandswindles/investment_scams/carbon_credit as well as the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance: http://www.icroa.org/documents/download.php?did=43

309. Thank you Chris.

     Yes I know, which is why I mentioned this on the blog. I cannot believe the registry would call an individual.

     So to go back to firstadministration (based in Gibraltar) this is what I have received by e-mail today following a telephone call from an advisor:

     “First Administration confirm the completion of the carbon asset confirmation process relating to your carbon holding on the 25th September 2013. The process shows a total carbon offset holding of carbon offset units.

     To be provisionally placed into a blue chip offset tender in order to receive the official offer and contract, please reply to this email confirming the following statement of intent.

     “I the SELLER (Insert Name) _________________________, do hereby confirm I am the owner of _____________ carbon offsets relating to First Administration carbon asset confirmation process.”

     Once you reply with the authorisation required, allocations will present you with an offer demonstrating the financial fundamentals of the tender including the contract exhibiting the terms of the sale and all protections and security’s therein.

     The buyer has requested a refundable insurance cost of £0.25/offset. This would be held by First Administration on the UK account, until point of retirement remit (i.e. sale date).

     This is ONLY PAYABLE if you wish to proceed with the offer made by the buyer (at the next stage), and is refunded in full within 5 working days of the sale date.

     This is an insurance deposit and is not a charge or commission”.

     So if you have 20,000 credits that would equate to £4000 deposit as an insurance! Hmmm, is this just another way to scam?? I wonder. It feels like another attempt at sophisticated rip off to me.

310. @Jon – thanks. Does First Administration have a website?

     The Financial Conduct Authority has seven suggestions on its website for people who have been scammed. “Stop sending money” is the first step. The fourth step is also relevant:

     Step 4: Beware of ongoing scams

     If you have lost money to a scam – or even just been contacted by fraudsters – you should beware that you are likely to be targeted again.

     If you have already been scammed the fraudsters will try to take advantage of you wanting to recover your money, and might offer to help you get some or all of it back.

     You may be reassured that your original investment is genuine and encouraged not to pull out of the deal or report it to us or the police. You might even be threatened with legal action, although this is usually not carried through – get legal advice if you are concerned.

     You also might be told you can swap your investment for another deal, with a transfer fee involved, or asked to pay a capital gains tax bill before the large profit you were promised can be released to you, even if it does not exist.

     An offer to buy back the shares or investment that you have lost money on, might need an administration fee or insurance deposit to firstly be paid. But you are unlikely to ever receive the money from their supposed sale.

     These secondary or ongoing scams are run from what the fraudsters call ‘recovery rooms’ and are often carried out by the same group involved in the first scam, to take more money from victims.

311. Yes

     firstadministration.com

     Looks like many of the others in this game.

312. Jon,
     Yes, I had a call from the ‘VCS Registry’, then was approached by Windward Capital as a result. They wanted me to first buy 400 ‘Bespoke CERs’ at £5 each (and there was no mention of any exit on the contract).

     Shame about First Administration – the nice lady promised no fee up-front. Now they seem to be strangely similar in methods to SouthWest Utilities (also based in Gibraltar). This should be of interest.

313. We all go through a similar journey.

     When we first realise we have been scammed we feel a mixture of shock, anger, disbelief, shame, panic.
     But we cling to hope. There must be someone else out there who can sell our credits. This is what the recovery scams feed off. They are telling us exactly what we want to hear and although part of us ‘knows’ it is a scam, another part so much wants to believe it.
     We have to get through this phase and reach ‘acceptance’. This is truly accepting that you have lost all the money you investing. Only then is it possible to move on.
     But acceptance does not mean doing nothing. It can still eat away from inside. So then move towards TAKING ACTION. Every time a scam company contacts you contact Action Fraud. Write to your MP again and again. Contact the media. Demand action. Don’t be fobbed off. Keep doing it. Then maybe, just maybe, one day these criminals will be brought to justice and we will find some peace.

314. …and an update. First Administration sent me the same form to fill in, with a fee of £0.30 per credit. My reply was brief: “Go away. Don’t waste my time”.

     Whatever jargon they use – “confirmation process”, “blue-chip”, “insurance deposit”, the hidden intent is very simple:

     “send us money”.

315. Alas alack! Sebastian Arkwright seem to be the same as all the others. Having been told there was no upfront payment needed by an underling who put me on to on his boss, Adam Johnson, who gave me a long spiel of how sorry he was to hear of all these scammers and that he was ok and would all in writing etc. etc. and that he worked on a live exchange and credits were sold on a daily basis and that he had investors with large contracts for CERs and that they were willing to offset a number of VERS and he would buy my credits for $5 each and could sell my Earth Metals as well and after all this I asked are you asking me to put up some money several times, and he replied that to get on to the exchange and his list of clients I would need to buy a few CERS and when I pushed for how much back came £4000!!!!! When I told him the scammers had taken all my money, he suggested a borrow money from family and friends!!! I thought of myself sinking deeper and deeper into the mire and losing friends as well. All the material he was to send me and followup phone next day has never happened.
     Incidentally Tim Hudson of Enviro from whom I bought 2,300 worth of EVRS/Diamonds has been telling me he would sell my VERS, but keeps putting me off because they are moving exchange and when CNI and Gemmax have moved their holding to this exchange he will add my list VCRs in a ‘few weeks’!!!!!!!

316. I purchased a large number of Carbon Credits one year ago. They were placed in safekeeping at a UK company called Citadel Trustees Limited. I have now received two invoices totaling UK Pounds 336.00 for “Appointed Custodian’s Fee”. I certainly did not appoint them.

     The carbon credits were marketed to me New Frontier Advisory and issued by Eco-Synergies. Both these companies have since disappeared – (gone bankrupt).

     Is this familiar to any of you? Have you paid the custodian? If these VCS credits (one US and one China project) are ultimately worthless, I am of a mind to tell Citadel that I will not pay and they can burn the credits for all I care. Am I being too rash? Should I pay them. What will happen to my credits if I dont pay? Any advice? Comments? Thanks

317. @Andy – Thanks for this. See the comment from Milan C above and the responses in the following comments, for more about Citadel Trustees and their fees.

318. Earlier comments about one details being circulated to new scammers sis only too true Over the past months I have experienced various cold calls to buy rare earth elements, gold fine wines and coloured diamonds form often more than one source for each of the commodities I mention.

     I woud like ot give notice that my last caller has a new approach. He offers an asset swap offering to take my carbon credits in exchange if I agreed to the purchase of a coloured diamond. Initially the cash adjustment mentioned was small, but it was apparent that if I showed interest that there would be a great effort to “up sell”.

     I can’t recall the full name but Global Commodities or something similar was given.

319. The call to me on pink diamonds came from ‘Be fancy’!!!

320. We have been contacted by a broker from a firm called Dresden Investments who claims to have made several successful exits for people who have bought MH Carbon credits without having to buy any more CER’s or other investments,has anybody else heard from or heard of this firm?

321. Andy (#316) Ask them for return of your certificates for your own custody (why should they look after them) and then take them to court if they fail to comply with the genuine article!

322. Andy W (#320). Dresden Investments website says their London address is One Canada Square – that the Canary Wharf Tower. Really? It also says they are regulated by Bafin (that’s like the FCA, but no Bafin number. Search the Bafin site and there’s no record of them. Oh yes and they want you to deposit 10% of expected proceeds in a ‘Corporate Crest Account’. I think not.

323. hi yes i have been speaking to david banks who is an exit strategists working for dresden investments .according to him he has an exit for carbon credits lined up just now involving a total of 30 investors. he is not selling anything for this exit but the bottom line is they require a depositary amount in a corporate crest account from each investor as security.(more the credits ,higher the deposit)once the deal goes through you receive the sale of your credits first and then your deposit is returned a few days later .once everything is complete we receive an invoice from david for about 3% commission on the total amount of money involved .i looked into a crest account and my understanding is that any money put into such an account is not accessible by any individual and is only used as security .once the transactions are completed the funds are returned to the account the sender stated on the paper work when depositing the money .this is my understanding but please do your own due diligence.personally i maybe persuaded to take the chance
     ANDY is this the same sort of information that was given to you or have i missed something .anything you want to add

324. I would like to think that any HONEST broker would NEVER take any money up front in any form whatsoever (be it crest acct, fine wine/diamonds etc or even via an independent solicitor – there are crooks posing as solicitors too!). I would gladly pay him a hefty commission of 10% (or more) once the sale is through, if this is the price you have to pay for honesty. Giving money up front reeks of a scam to me.

325. Think carefully!
     Ask Dresden for their Bafin regulated number and check it on the Bafin website. If they can’t give you one and/or you can’t find it ask yourself why?
     Who owns the ‘crest account’ they want you to put your money into? If Dresden disappear without your sale going through, who would you contact to get your money back out of the crest account? Are they regulated?
     Dresden will ask you to send them details of your credits so they can check at the registry that you own them. But they can’t. Your credits will be held in a Nominee Account and not in your name. Stick in a bogus holding to see if they spot it.
     This is a recovery scam. Not 90%, Not 99%. Not 99.9% 100% Report them to Action Fraud

326. Hi Mike(#322), yes I did notice there address and that is also the address of a firm called Glenleigh Trading and on further investigation 1 Canary Wharf turns out to be a place for virtual offices same type as MH carbon used to work from,I did look on the Bafin web site and couldn’t find where to find firms registered with them, not a clear web site like the FCA. Thank you all for your reply’s and comments to my question, that has given me some ammo for when they call again. As I mentioned earlier about Glenleigh when they call a few weeks ago I had an interesting time talking with one of there so called brokers, it’s along story but bottom line is when I said about taking commission from sale of credits got the same load of crap as the others about buying gCER’s this time then he began to start waffling about this and that and that was it off he went but at least I must have wasted around half an hour of his phone bill. By the way what is a crest account?

327. CREST is the central securities depository system for UK and Ireland stock markets. It operates an electronic system to record ownership and transfer of shares and was brought in when the market dematerialised and did away with paper certificates. Its unusual for individuals to have CREST accounts as normally your shares will be held under an account owned by a Broker’s Nominee Company.
     Why anyone would require you to open a CREST account to sell carbon credits is beyond me as they are not traded on the exchange. I suspect the CREST account will turn out to be nothing of the kind.

328. I was contacted by a a company called Audax Energy Trading. Reg company 08386036. This is one of many suspect calls I have experienced from companies selling ‘wonder’ investments. On this occasion a man called Aiden Byrne Carter rang from 02079474395. He was trying to sell energy products, natural gas, coal, biomass, carbon credits and the like. I was reluctant but listened to his patter. He then called again and on a further occasion and sent me a brochure and information on investments by e mail. He said he would call again when I had studied the information.

     I found his manner quite forceful and he just outlined the upside of such investments. In the e mail he mentioned that the investments were made through Palmetto Investments who were FCA regulated and had globally £3bn investments in energy. I have decided not to further any investments through them and have not answered the phone to this company even though it rings many times a day.

     I researched Audax Energy Trading which produced a professional brochure and has a convincing website. (audaxenergytrading.com) However digging a little deeper I find it has only been incorporated for 6 months, has one director Andrew Charles Clark who is 28 years old. It operates from Warnford Court, Throgmorton Street, London EC2N 2AT, which appears as grand office premises but I think is a virtual office.

     The company has not placed any accounts and has capital of £1. According to Companies House this company has no telephone number, no website and states no line of business. Furthermore the directo,r Mr Clark, is also the director of Audax Finance Ltd, Audax Corporate Trading and Audax Carbon Trading all of which are active and operate from the same trading address. Another company in his name, ACC Consultancy Ltd is at the same address but has been disolved.

     Palmetto Investments appears to be a legitimate investment company in the USA but according to Companies House in the UK it is a fledgling company (08445844) founded in March 2013, again, no accounts filed and no line of business displayed. It also does not have any contact information recorded at Companies House The Trading address is America House, 2 America Square, London EC3N 2LU. Again I think this is a virtual office. Again this has a director who is also director of a number of other companies registered at the same address.
     Anybody throw any light on this?

     I am not sure if any of this is as it is portrayed by Audax Energy Trading I feel that I am being misled into thinking that the investment is through a multinational finance company when clearly it is not.

     I have no intention of investing from any information by cold call through persons or organisations unknown to me. I have had five such incidents of cold calls recently all involving bogus or suspicious investment opportunities. This is the third one I have reported to the FCA in a short period of time.

329. @Rick (#328),
     Palmetto’s website (www.palmetto.com) is not much help, but they are registered with the FCA (their FRN number is 600916). Under ‘Basic Details’ there is hardly anything, apart from some contact details.

     Palmetto act as a holding custodian for CERs for Clearview Partnership, mentioned elsewhere on this blog.
     Mark.

330. Thanks
     Palmetto only registered March 2013, yet are a ‘trusted leader’ and claim, on there website to have been operating since 1996. They claim to have assets of over £200 million worldwide. I cannot find any other information besides what they provide on their website.

     Rick

331. Some interesting WHOIS information about the palmetto.com domain name:

     First created: 8-2-99
     Updated: 31-1-13
     Registered by: Chris Kemper
     Registration address:
     6 North Atlantic Wharf
     Charleston
     S. Carolina
     US.

     Its possible that the web domain is leased by Chris to a third party, but the WHOIS email contact for Chris Kemper is chris.kemper@palmettoventures.com. Palmettoventures.com links directly to the palmetto.com website.

     Its also possible that someone else held the palmetto.com domain name until 31-1-13 when Chris Kemper took it over.

332. Christopher Kemper is shown as a director of Palmetto Ventures and a director of Palmetto Investments, according to Companies House.
     However the latter company, claims international financial coverage and is based in the US but I cannot find any evidence of this, except through Palmetto’s website. The only company I found was Palmetto Investment Consultants LLC which appears to be nothing to do with the London Company.
     Rick

333. ive found a company that will purchase credits sold mine very complex and the how they do it but satisfied andactually made money

334. Phillip well done. Can you supply details. I have found a number of brokers who deal in Voluntary Credits, but will only deal on a B2B basis not with private individuals

335. Phillip,
     Like a number of people reading these posts, I’d be interested to know the name of the company you dealt with
     Dave

336. @ phillip goole like alan and dave i would love to have details
     of the company who slod your credits please email me roblaw35@gmail.com

337. @Alan (#334), Dave (#335), Robert (#336) – I think “phillip goole” is a shill.

     Please read this comment from Derek following another post about MH Carbon: http://bit.ly/19Ow1SO

     I am sorry to say that the probability of anyone selling on VERs they have been sold by boiler rooms is zero.

     I have spoken to two genuine project developers this week, who are holding millions of tonnes of VERs that are superior in quality to those I have seen sold by boiler rooms. These genuine primary sellers have been looking for buyers for over a year. These guys would be overjoyed to sell the lot at anything close to €0.30 per tonne.

     There is a massive oversupply of VERs relative to any voluntary demand particularly for the low cost if not worthless VERs sold by boiler rooms.

     There is no demand in the primary market and there is NO genuine secondary market for this reason.

338. If Philip Goole is real and has an exit strategy please share. As I suspect he is not is there any way we can set up our own carbon trading company with our VER’S ETC and sell our credits as a business rather than an individual ? How hard can it be?

339. @Savi (#338) – Thanks for this, but did you read Derek’s comment here – (# 337)?

     The problem is not whether you are a business or an individual. The problem is that you’ve paid way too much for carbon credits that are near worthless.

340. Beware they are calling with an exit.
     FCA have a warning out for this bunch.
     Not sure what the angle is but I suspect a
     down payment on insurance.

     I have told them I know they are a clone company and
     expect to hear nothing more from them.

341. I just received an unsolicited email from “London Commodity Solutions” asking me to invest in the emerging “Graphene” market. A quick Companies House search reveals that the company was incorporated in mid 2012 and has as its director one Mr. Adam Smith. Could this be the same Adam Smith that was involved in scamming investors at MH Carbon? I don’t know, but I smell the stench from this a mile away….

342. I also received a brochure on the future profits from Graphene and treated it with the contempt it deserved.

343. Agree.

     This is the next kid on the block. It looks and smells like a scam.

     Why oh why are the UK financial authorities so poor at policing this sort of thing if we as ordinary punters can spot them, the scamsters, coming a mile off.

     I despair at the freedom these companies have at setting up with the sole intention of ripping decent people off.

     Manganese, coloured diamonds, you name it they will try to sell you it.

     Steer clear my friends.

344. Anybody been contacted by Capital Growth Securities of New York another firm offering to get me an exit

345. Carbon to Graphene, it is the same scam with a different product. There is a structure to the boiler room business model, the first thing is to find a product to sell, typically this is something that has picked up a lot of media interest in recent times. Graphene like carbon credits has picked up a lot of media interest in recent times as being the next revolution in engineering, tubular graphene can be stronger than steel yet malleable.

     This gives the boiler room a ready supply of avaiable marketing material, the next thing to do is to create a company that is at the cutting edge of the graphene industry, create your brochures, pick up the phone and sell sell sell.

     This has been going on for decades, it matters not what the industry or product, if its getting high profile media attention you can bet that somewhere a boiler room is already flogging shares in a newly formed company that is at the cutting edge.

     I recall seeing a report several years ago that suggested over 25 percent of registered companies in the UK have been solely set-up to facilitate some type of fraud in the future.

     Social Housing Bonds, Cemetery Investments, rare earth metals, film investments, you name it the list goes on and on.

346. These people never give up – I have had several calls from Hamilton Carter, asking why I have not followed up their contracts.
     Now I have had a call form a Mr Husaini (an Englishman) of Goodman and Banks, asking me to invest £3000 in a gold mine in Ecuador – a profit of 2,400 half paid next March and half at the end of 2014. When I pointed out the price of gold was falling, his reply was that it was rising again!! He commiserated with me about Carbon credits and that many of people who lost in them were now happy with this new venture and begged me to do everything possible to get the money such as from my family, friends, bank anywhere!!!

347. There seems to be a new proliferation of scams. I’ve been contacted twice now in the last 3 weeks by a company called Murdoch & Chase and been sent glossy paperwork offering the earth. Has anyone come across this lot? I can’t recall the names of the first “trader” that contacted me but yesterday the guy referred to my carbon credits that Citadel Trustees had sent him!
     To cut to the chase Murdoch & Chase initially offered me £19.00 per credit 3 weeks ago, which I declined, and yesterday the guy offered me £17.69 per credit IF I paid him £4,100, less a discount of £1,800 = £2,300, to convert my VERs to CERs with an exit in February. The lower value of the credits he explained was because the market was contacting and this deal was with a different Corporate Client. He mentioned the name of a very large conglomerate.
     At these figures I would make a very handsome profit but all my gut feelings say that this is a scam!
     The paperwork(s) I have received have only been signed by a Miss Diane Rivers and a Mr John Murdoch.
     Any comments please.

     Den

348. @Andy Wildman (#344), @mervyn casson (#346) and @Den (#347) – Once your name and phone number are in the hands of boiler rooms, the phone calls will keep coming.

     I’m sorry, but it makes no difference what the name of the company is, or what the person you speak to decides to call themselves. If they called you, it is a scam.

     It makes no difference what they are offering – see Derek’s comment (#345). If they called you, it is a scam.

     Not only would a reputable financial company not phone you, doing so would be in breach of Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority rules.

349. Thanks,
     I’ll forward their details to the police.

     Den

350. EVR . Gemmax . Vaeron . Carbon Advisory Council. Are they all part of the same operation?

351. @Andy – If either you or a firm that has contacted you is in the USA you can report it to ic3.gov and ftc.gov.

352. Had a call from a company claiming to be World Independent News (or something like that – sorry cannot recall exact) from Leverkusen in Germany. Doing a ‘survey’ asking about opinions on the economy, growth sectors, where I invest, how, amounts, how, oh and if I have ever invested in Carbon, wine, diamonds. When challenged, he claimed the data is intended for HM Government, although I was not convinced. Don’t think he went away with an impression other than that I would only invest solely in UK FCA regulated opportunities of my own choice.

353. Update: similar to Jon (#308),I had a call from VCS Registry and then follow up from Windward Capital (a Raymond Windsor).

     In a nutshell, they “appreciate there have been numerous scams” and mentioned MH Carbon etc. Was told they could sell my VCUs at prices of £12 and £10 with a 2% commission. I played along and was then told that it would require a £2,500 registration fee which would be fully refundable if they failed to sell my VCUs.

     After telling them that I would not be making any payment and this was non-negotiable I made them an offer of paying 10% commission fee on selling the VCUs. Was told that they would check but company was unlikely to go for it. I then said that 10% commission sounded good business for them – which they agreed – and then raised my offer to 20%!! He said he’d check and call me back but I sincerely doubt that I will hear from him again.

354. Just recently, I got another letter from Citadel Trustees requesting payment for holding carbon credits in one of my projects. Their first letter (received back in August (see post above) was a request for payment for a different project) I chose to ingnore, and they never chased me up on it.

     This time I decided to write back, and below is a transcrip of our correspondence (with personal details redacted):

     Dear Ms Olthoff,

     Re: Appointed Custodian’s Annual Fees Request

     Regarding your letter of 12th September 2013 related to the above matter, I would like to ask you why you require a “Custodian Annual Fee”, and where did I agree to paying this?

     Could you also please inform me of all the carbon credit projects that you hold in my name.

     ****************************************************************

     Dear Mr C,

     We have checked our records and can confirm that we hold on trust the following carbon credits under your name, Mr Milan C:

     *** list of projects****

     Please be informed that Citadel Trustees Limited (“Citadel”) was appointed by Eco-Synergies Ltd to provide custodian and escrow services in respect of the sales of carbon credits. As part of the custodian service we administer a company called Eco-Synergies Nominees Ltd. This company holds the credits on trust for clients, like yourself.
     When you purchased your carbon credits, the agent should have provided you with Terms & Conditions which included the provision for the payment of an annual trust fee.
     The fees recently invoiced are for the work undertaken by Citadel in maintaining Eco-Synergies Nominees Ltd (as a non-trading owning company) in good standing which includes ensuring regulatory items such as the annual reports and accounts are filed correctly, provision of directors and shareholders to enable the company to operate, maintaining a database of owners and responding to client enquiries.
     Our fees shall be invoiced on an annual basis whilst we hold the credits for you.

     Yours sincerely,

     Tatiana Olthoff
     Operations Administrator
     For and on behalf of
     Citadel Trustees Limited.

     *********************************************************

     Dear Ms Olthoff,

     Thank you for your reply. Your response itemising the carbon credits you hold on trust under my name agree with my records.

     With respect to the Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) that you mention (provided by the agents selling the carbon credits), I regret to inform you that there is no mention of any annual custodian fees.

     You say that you have been appointed by Eco-Synergies Ltd to provide custodian and escrow services in respect of sales of carbon credits. Eco-Synergies were the original custodian of my carbon credits, and they never charged or attempted to charge me for this service. I believe that Eco-Synergies are no longer in existence, and as a result of this, and the lack of any mention of custodian fees in the original agent’s T&Cs, I do not believe I am liable to pay you any such fees.

     You seem to have ended up as custodians of my carbon credits as a consequence of the fact that my original agents: Tullet Brown and World Carbon (later renamed Worldwide Commodities) as well as Eco-Synergies, have all simply disappeared without trace. Perhaps you also hold carbon credits for people that bought them through numerous other ‘agents’ that have also simply vanished.

     On a related topic, just the other day, I was cold called by a ‘trader’ form a company called Murdoch and Chase Asset Management who knew details about my carbon credit holdings. When I asked him how he knew about them, he told me that he was informed by yourselves, Citadel Trustees Limited. He went on to explain that he could convert my carbon credit VERs to CERs with a very profitable exit next February, provided that I paid him a considerable up front fee.

     Firstly, I was surprised and very angry to find out that you have passed on my personal information to a third party. You are supposed to be custodians in trust of this information, and should not pass it on to third parties without my explicit consent!

     Secondly, I am sure you are aware of the various carbon credit scam operations that have been going on over the past few years. This call from Murdoch & Chase was a typical boiler room recovery opperation trying to trick me to part with my money. The simple fact that they cold called me and tried to sell me this bullshit is a serious breach of the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority regulations, and I shall be reporting this to them.

     The fact that you have passed on my personal information to these scammers (and possibly others) leads me to believe that you are implicated in this carbon credit scamming operation.

     I await your response to my letter.

     ******************************************

     Dear Mr. C,

     We acknowledge receipt of your email dated 1st November, which has been forwarded to me for a response by my colleague, Ms. Olthoff.

     Regarding our fees, I refer you to clause 12 of the Terms, which then refers to Schedule 1; our fees are outlined therein. As we are providing a trust service, we are entitled to be remunerated. Prior to the liquidation of Eco-Synergies Limited, we were appointed to hold the carbon credits on trust, including your carbon credits.

     We are well aware of the Data Protection Law and confirm that we have not given any agent or company any data in respect of the clients we provide a trust service to and confirm we have no relationship with Murdoch and Chase. We will be writing to this entity separately.

     Yours sincerely,

     Anna Rickard
     Director

     Tel: +44 1276 482 015
     Fax: +44 1276 482 001
     Skype ID: annab66

     ***************************************

     I have not yet replied to Anna Rickard, but this is not the first instance I have heard that scammers have mentioned Citadel Trustees as a source of their information. Whether this is true or not, I guess cannot easily be verified, but probably warrants investigation.

     Chris (Lang), maybe you could “officially” write to Cidadel asking them to clarify their position? And also ask why should we be paying fees for holding worthless credits to what appears to be (to all intents & purposes) a dormant company. Asking for a fee to produce a certificate for a sale might be a different matter.

355. This whole nasty saga has reached new heights when today (14th November 2013) I received a call with Number Withheld from a gentleman who claimed he was calling from Wells Fargo Investments and said he wanted to do a survey about my confidence in the state of the stockmarket.

     By now I have totally had enough of these people and told him he would now be wanting to be selling me various scam investments not regulated by the FSA/FCA such as carbon equities, rare earth metals and fine wines. I also told him I had not heard of Wells Fargo since the days of Billy The Kid and had only ever heard of them in American Western films. I then said he was clearly a person of absolutely no conscience who was set out on scamming elderly vulnerable people with declining income from their savings and that he clearly lacked any form of conscience in terms of how he earned his living.

     At this point he suddenly told me that he knew where I lived and read out my address and said he would be round here at 7pm this evening (14th November 2013) and that I had better watch out.

     Unfortunately I didn’t play along with the scam long enough to get his name and in order to encourage him to send me an email so I am now left with reporting this through Post Office Homephone as a malicious and threatening call so that they hopefully supply the originating number to either me or the Poilce so that I can report this gentleman for threatening physical violence against me.

     Clearly these scammers are reaching new lows if they are prepared to threaten physical violence at the home of anyone who calls them out for what they are (i.e. malicious scumbag criminal conmen) and refuses to fall for any of their cons.

     I have now spoken to Post Office Homephone and a female adviser who scarcely spoke English and called herself Iran (she claimed this was pronounced Iren even though she spelt it as Iran) told me nusiance calls were nothing to do with them and they did not have a Nuisance Calls Bureau like BT. This surely cannot be the case. I suppose I will now need to send an email of complaint to the Chief Executive of the Post Office via http://www.ceoemail.com

356. @Capvermell – You should report this call to your local police office as well as informing Action Fraud.

357. iwould like to update you on my dealings with Enviro Associates. I had a phone call from Tim Hudson who took issue with me on this blog for saying I had bought diamonds and would put my carbon credits on an exchange in 3 weeks. Enviro do not sell demands and my ‘gem’ referred to Gemmax solutions who are the holding company for the credits, but he did say this would happen in three/several weeks after 27 July. I am now told that Gemmax bought out CNI, which we know already, and they are going to crate a platform principally for China, but they are now being audited by the FCA with a view of putting this platform on the Carbon Trading Exchange, but this audit is taking longer than was thought, but as soon as the audit is finished all my carbon credits will be put on this platform for sale, which could take some time to achieve. Any comments? I suppose it is interesting that Enviro reads this blog!!

358. I had a letter from MH Carbon Nominees today who are clearly still trading stating my holding of credits with them and serial nos. They are based in Norfolk anybody else had this yet?

359. Got the same letter from MH Carbon Nominees and do intend contacting them to see what options they can offer, being very cautious of course.

360. Mervyn,

     If Gemmax really are being audited by the FCA, and the audit is taking longer than was thought, then Gemmax *may* be up the creek without a paddle. Audits that take longer than expected are often a sign that the books and records of the company being audited are in a big mess, at best.

     But you only have the word of someone who says they’re from from Enviro about the FCA audit. That’s not worth much.

     Gemmax’s own recent statement, here: http://www.gemmax.co.uk/statements/statement-regarding-vcs-ver-carbon-credits, also suggests that Gemmax is in a big mess, especially with respect to registering ownership of carbon credits. But the statement says nothing about an FCA audit, nor about China, nor about the Carbon Trading Exchange.

     So it is really hard to tell what is really going on inside Gemmax, except that it looks very, very troubled.

     Just maybe the FCA is poised to take action against Gemmax, but they’ve been very tolerant so far, so I wouldn’t bank on it.

361. I have previously been called back by the fraud division of Hampshire Police (after making a report through Action Fraud) about Enviro Associates and they assured me that the company and in particular its Chief Executive is extremely well known to them and they are still trying to compile enough evidence to bring a case against them and close them down.

     Anyone prepared to give their money to these unashamed and quite blatant connmen at this point in time (when there is so much evidence on the web of the fraudulent claims they have previously made about carbon credits and all the naive people who have sadly lost thousands of pounds with them) has to be positively certifiable.

362. Richard,
     My thoughts exactly! As I don’t expect anything, I am intriqued to see where Enviro is going with all these comments.

     I have also received the same letter from MH Carbon Nominees, but my last trade in January is missing from their list, and they have given several other possible holders. I wonder what they are up to.

     arbon Nominees

363. Capvermell, there is silver lining to the cloud. This is very bad sorry to hear your experience, but seems like they are getting desperate so naming and shaming maybe working.

364. Hi

     I’ve had an approach (cold call) from Murdoch & Chase, offering to sell my VERs and CERs (4,000 total). They haven’t tried to get me to buy new carbon credits but they do want a (returnable) fee for “corporate re-diversion into CERs” of around £3K + VAT. The documentation comes with an underwritten guarantee and a buy-back guarantee – the latter representing the return of the fee. The price they are offering me is far more than I would expect. So, the question is: is this another scam? Does anyone know anything about Murdoch & Chase?

365. Leave them be. The price they are offering for an exit is way beyond what the credits are worth. I was approached several weeks ago and offered a fantastic exit. I was asked if I had the “funds” and saying “yes”, but not agreeing to any exit, Murdoch & Chase sent me a contract – which I immediately queried. I spoke with a Michael Henderson who said it was too late to “change my mind” as he’d already converted my holdings to CERs. I then refused to have any more dealings with him &, instead, sent an e-mail to Murdoch & Chase requesting information as to how my holdings could have been “converted” without my say-so. Surprise! No response.
     Citadel Trustees have subsequently confirmed that my holdings are secure.

     Leave well alone!! It’s a scam.

     Den

366. @Philip Howard – Murdoch & Chase is running a Recovery Room operation. They are asking for money upfront. No reputable company would cold call you. See this comment.

367. hi philip dont waste your money .i was caught out by a company called dresden investments . they offered to sell my share at £7.20 but i had to put money into a crest corporate account which is an account where monies are held as a guarantee and the money paid back once the deal goes through .i paid more than what they are asking you . i told them that my financial situation is not good and i could use the money elsewhere. but they persuaded me in giving the money on the promise the deal would be going through in two weeks . my money will be in my account the week after and the deposit within the next week . after i sent the money there was a call from dresden saying the deal had fallen through and i was to go to the bank and ask for a T103 from the bank which would return my money back to my account from the corporate account . we went to the bank and they had not heard of this before but they still sent the request through we are still waiting for a reply .there are no calls from the exit strategist (david banks ) or from dresden investments and there website is also down .caught out in another scam .

368. @PhilipHoward. Surely you can see that their guarantee isn’t going to be worth the paper its printed on (especially as they are a non FSA regulated outfit) and just another attempt to scam you.

     It really is very sad indeed that you and so many other people were scammed so badly and quite outrageous the Police and the government are doing nothing at all to stop this major form of financial fraud but with you unfortunately still apparently wanting to believe in a pot of gold at the end of rainbow, despite everything that has already happened to you, its unfortunately all too easy to see how you were scammed in the first place.

369. @ChrisLang I take it that a Recovery Room is just a second stage Boiler Room that tries to milk the victim again on the basis of falsely promising to recover the money the scammer have already stolen from him and then ripping them off again. I do know that making these sorts of mistakes are all too common with people who have money but are not financially literate. My Uncle was a successful dentist but years ago lost a large amount of money with Barlow Clowes chasing just another percent or two on interest rates.

     Sadly the media never seems to cover these things either at all and/or certainly not at all regularly despite their very serious nature while by contrast week in and week out it continues to babble hysterically about the dangers of the internet in order to try and scare every parent in the land witless. Why are they not doing precisely the same thing in order to try and save elderly pensioners from losing a large amount of their life’s savings and to make life a lot harder for the conmen I wonder?

370. Interesting. I receive a copy of a statement of my (worthless) Carbon Credit holdings from MH Carbon Nominees. There is no name on the paperwork and details of who is/are MH Carbon Nominees are scant to say the least. The address however looks like that of a home address of a Jeff Razaq, Then I receive several e-mails from Enviro Associates telling me I will have received these details and offering unspecified support. What is the connection?

371. Further to two earlier approaches by Murdoch & Chase and to comments #347,#364 & #365, I have been approached, yet again, by a 3rd “dealer”; a Scott Lemmon, asking why I was querying the “deal” that Murdoch & Chase were offering. He then spent a further 10 minutes telling me that I’d now missed my second chance of an exit at £17,69 and that I would be missing out again if I didn’t go with them now; with a guaranteed exit at £12.11 in April and a further guarantee that my “re-diversion” costs would be returned within a few days of the exit!
     I’ve asked him to ring back next Thursday (28th) at 11:00. Let’s see what he’s going to offer then? Unless he’s reading this of course!
     Den

372. Another one, this time from Tokyo!
     I was initially contacted by a Mr John Roper on 14th November. He was from a company: http://www.carbonoffsetconsultants.com and asked me for a list of holdings and requested I filled in a Vendor Information Form for each individual holding. I declined this as I was away at the time – and I thought he might go away if I didn’t bother.
     Imagine my surprise when I got a call today, 28th November, from a colleague of Mr Roper, a Mark Ryan, who went to great lengths to explain to me that my credits would be sold on the Chinese market at USD21.20 per credit BUT, since it was a highly regulated market, I would need to pay 8 Yuan per credit (USD1.31) to register my holdings . This equated to £2,940.00. Surprise!!
     However, apart from all the speak of the Chang Jing Climate Exchange (TCX), Lun Holdings and the NDRC this Mark Ryan sent me a link to a Chinese Newspaper (?) with a story regarding the sale of Carbon Credits: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1346221/lessons-shenzhen-carbon-exchange-will-help-others-flourish
     It all seems so believable!!
     Beware.

373. I have been contacted by ‘Global Carbon Index’ to suggest I put my carbon holdings on their platform. Annabel told me I could either purchase some of their holdings or increase their percentage on the sale of my credits. I am to be contacted by a senior broker sometime soon. Have anyone else had contact with this firm?

374. @mervyn – No reputable company would cold call you – see this comment. Did “Global Carbon Index” give you their website address? There’s no company by that name listed on Open Corporates.

375. Hi Chris,

     I read in the news about China opening a carbon trading market. Do you think those of us stuck with VERs (especially those for China projects) would be able to sell our credits into this new market in future?

     Thanks.

376. I have just received a letter from Citadel Trustees with whom the dubious trader who sold me credits registered my holding. They want £18 as an annual fee as Appointed Custodian. Should I pay for what seems a valueless holding and can one remove the credits and hold them oneself.?

     John Duncan

377. John,
     Please see previous answers from to this question. Bob

378. @john duncan (#375) – Thanks for this. See the comment above from Milan C (#260) and the responses in the following comments, for more about Citadel Trustees and their fees.

379. Yes, Citadel want Pounds 600 from me!! I said I will look after my own credits but they refuse to release them to me. No safekeeping fee was never mentioned by New Frontier Advisory Ltd / Eco synergies when I purchased the carbon credits.

380. @Andy (#374) – Thanks for this. China has set up three carbon trading systems in Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai. In December, another will start up in Guangdong province (this will be the second biggest in the world after the EU Emissions Trading System).

     These carbon trading systems issue (for free) a limited number of carbon permits to industrial firms. If they go over this quota (i.e. the cap), they have to buy carbon permits (or pay fines, which are currently very low). If they stay under the cap, they can sell their remaining carbon permits. The carbon permits are similar to EUAs (EU Emission Allowances).

     Offsets are not yet included in the Chinese carbon trading systems. Compliance carbon offsets (CERs – Certified Emission Reductions, and CCERs – Chinese Certified Emission Reductions) may be included in the future.

     Voluntary offsets are not included China’s carbon trading systems and it’s very unlikely that they will be included.

381. Thanks for your reply Chris. Do you think that VERs are COMPLETELY worthless? Is there anything you can see in the future which could help us get at least some of our money back? Surely if many hundreds of victims are reporting to Action Fraud (i.e. UK Police) they will have to do something about it? In the meantime – if it were you, would you pay the safekeeping/storage fees being demanded by Citadel – over Pounds 600 in my case?

     Thanks

382. Andy,
     You must ask for the serial numbers of all the credits that Citadel hold for you, so that you can verify that they still exist and have not been retired. If they cannot identify your specific holdings then you should not pay them fees.
     If they have invoiced you for £600, that implies a huge holding. You should query the calculation, and when and how they contacted you to tell you that they would charge you.
     Bob

383. I have had an odd letter from Gemma Solutions telling me that they are the custodian for the VECs I bought from Enviro Associates and they also sent a contract which is deemed to be effective without my signature. However the oddity is para 8 ‘It is a condition of the Nominees ……does not involve participation in a collective scheme or any form of derivative trading in relation to the Owner’s assets or any other activity that would require to be REGULATED BY THE FSA or any other regulatory authority. The owner by accepting this the appointemt of the Nominees and that any sale of the assets will be in compliance with terms applicable for the sale of the assets OUTSIDE THE FSA regulation. Therefore he is not entitled to the protection ……of organisations regulated by the FSA’. Surely this is not a valid contract, and the carbon credits belong to me? Should I reply that I do not accept Para8?

384. I contacted Citadel Trustees and within 24 hours received a full reply with the serial numbers of my holding which I will now check on the VCS database.
     They also gave an explanation of their charges which I copy below to help others. “We charge £0.015 per carbon credit. The payment of our annual fees contribute to the costs in retaining the non-trading holding company we administer, Eco-Synergies Nominees Ltd. This company is the entity which holds the carbon credits. In addition, we maintain an electronic record of all carbon credits purchased by investors and attend to various administrative duties.”
     John Duncan

385. Thanks to all for your various replies on Citadel. Yes, I have been assured by Ms Rickard at Citadel that my credits are safely with them.

     I have sunk UK Pounds 200,000 into these VCS credits – stupid in hindsight, but I am sure many of you can attest to the convincing way these companies were able to draw us in. Was supposed to be a quick 6 month investment with minimum 20% return – haha! This is a huge sum for me and my retirement is looking a lot less rosy. The point is, do ANY of you see ANY glimmer of hope even 3 to 5 yrs into the future that these things will have ANY value at all? Is there ANY market? If yes then I guess I will struggle to find the 600+ Pounds for Citadel. But if they are really worthless why should I pay Citadel? Their fee was never discussed/revealed by New Frontier/Eco Synergies. I live on the other side of the world from the UK. Are they really going to try and sue me for 600 pounds??? And of course it will keep accumulating another 600 each year, maybe they will levy interest or unpaid fees charge, who knows! Five years from now I will be too old to care any more (in my 60’s now). What are the UK authorities doing? Don’t they care about the reputation of the UK financial industry? The whole thing STINKS!!!!!!!

386. Further thought – Are Citadel really whiter than white and totally balmeless in this whole VCS affair? They are supposed to be FSA registered (a point stressed over and over again by New Frontier as a way of legitimising the transactions). Surely when Cidadel started to see thousands of VCS credits coming onto its books and being held in relatively small parcels by lots of individuals this should have rung alarm bells. They MUST have known that these instruments were not suitable investments for individuals. They could have sounded a warning. But did not. They are complicit in the whole thing, but hide behind the arguement that they just hold investments on their books and do not look into the nature of such investments. Is this the action of a responsible, FSA registered company and a member of the UK financial industry?

387. By the way, Bob, thanks for your reply, above. I did not understand what you meant by “ask for the serial numbers of all the credits that Citadel hold for you, so that you can verify that they still exist and have not been retired” Retired ??? meaning? I thought they were valid forever until I sell them? Who can “retire” them? What does it mean? Is this something else I was not told by New Frontier?

     Thanks

388. John,
     Well done; I have been waiting since April for my numbers, which is when they started sorting them out; I will now have another go. I have always known about the fees as they wrote to me over a year ago when I first bought credits from World Carbon, later Worldwide Commoditities, but I have refused to pay until they extract them and tell me.
     Andy, you should check that the £600 invoiced from Citadel does equate to your holding, at £0.015 per credit. That is a very big number, and if true, you may consider putting a legal investigator onto it, to try to track down the fraudsters, with a view to taking legal action against them as individuals.

389. Mervyn,
     I do not understand it and would need to see the whole contract.

390. That sounds like another ripping scheme. The credits I’ve are worthless and they start asking for payments how to handle it?

391. Hi Bob, Very hard to prove fraud. They will say it is a free market / buyer beware. guess that is why we are all hoping that the UK authorities / police will finally do something about this whole issue.

392. Andy,
     Citadel was investigated last year, by one of the journalists who write about all this. I cannot find the article but Chris Lang can point you at it. Essentially, he asked the same questions as you have.
     This whole ‘industry’ has grown into a very sophisticated process with layers of devices to prevent you getting at the people involved, the first being that they phone you, they keep control over the process and push you. You should ask the question, why do so many of these organisations have your details; answer, because they are all part of the same organisation. It is unlikely that they are all individuals who have suddenly decided to sell Carbon Credits or other stuff that sounds good to punters. They work in collusion with each other, and may well be hard wired further up the tree. The same names keep popping up. Am I suggesting conspiracy on a much greater scale; yes. Look at the way the companies are started, then the directors quickly change.
     You need to check that your credits have not been retired because they may have been sold twice, and already been used as offset by a company who would then retire them. They only last one year when used as offset.
     Unless you have the numbers, you are just a name on a list in a Collective Scheme, which Citadel are FSA regulated to run, but there could be more names than Credits. However, as they have already issued numbers, it seems unlikely that there is a problem here, just an administrative delay.[I hope!]
     As for the future, time is against us as more Credits are issued by projects than are being bought, so the value has crashed [it never was as high as we paid for them], and the market is a shambles, or non-existent.
     There is some hope in China and I have put some holders in touch with a company in China that was buying a specific project [Project 722] Credit. It seemed genuine that they were buying direct for their own benefit. I wrote about this a few weeks ago.
     One problem is that if there really was a company in the business of selling credits to end users, how would you
     recognise them from the scammers. Who can you trust now.

393. @Bob (#391) – I think you’re referring to this article by Tony Hetherington in the Daily Mail (24 March 2012):

     Watch out for hot air over carbon sales

     Here’s the bit from the article about Citadel Trustees:

     So what does Citadel do? Apparently, it simply holds the carbon credits for both World Carbon and its clients. And that’s it. But this leaves Citadel in an odd position.

     It is licensed by the FSA, which has issued a strong warning about carbon credits. Not every scheme is a scam, it says, but investors may not be able to sell their credits at any price.

     So should Citadel be involved at all? Director Anna Rickard told me: ‘It would only be unethical for Citadel Trustees to knowingly and intentionally involve itself in a scam.’

     However, this is not quite the FSA view. The City watchdog said: ‘Firms should be aware that there are some unscrupulous unauthorised investment firms that will try to get advertising or other promotional material approved by authorised firms to appear more legitimate.’

     Of course, the FSA is not saying that World Carbon is unscrupulous. But it is saying that Citadel cannot sit back and close its eyes and ears.
     It must make its own due diligence enquiries to ensure that investors are not disadvantaged in exactly the way described in the FSA’s alert. I hope it does, and I look forward to seeing the results. Meanwhile, extreme caution remains the order of the day.

394. @Andy #386 regarding retirement of credits:

     Around the time of the 360 Invest Group/Alternative Markets recovery scam I was told that my credits would automatically ‘retire’ in 2020. That means that they are treated in the same way as a company buying them for retirement – ie. to take them off the record where no one can buy them. They cease to exist at that point. I didn’t know that when I bought them.

     The charge for registration – should a new contract be issued? Don’t sign it. Take them to court for unfair contract terms.

395. Hi,
     Just received a phone call from a company FE Wealth Management who have offered to buy all my Credits 3000 for £18800. The catch is that I must deposit 10% into a holding company Esselte holdings until 22/1/14 when I will receive the payment. This is as a stakeholder whilst the credits are transferred. Sure it is a scam but has anyone else heard of this twist? The company are Frank Eppendahl which appears to be of German origin as an insurance company.

396. @Dbinny (#53), @Dave C (#229) and @Alan (#269) – Here’s a post about Hamilton Carter:

     Hamilton Carter: A “specialist investment consultancy” selling carbon credits as investments sets off the alarm bells

397. From my dealings (non reaction by me!) and their constant harrying of me I would ignore any of their blandishments!!!!

398. I’ve probably been scammed by David Banks of Dresden Investments on vintage wine anyone else.

399. david banks phoned me saying he could sell my carbon credits if I opened a CORPORATE CREST ACCOUNT and deposit £5000.00 in it
     I was dubious but fell for the scam after a ben jones from their “legal team” called to assure me it was all above board
     the paper work looked good too, but I have been trying to contact by phone and of course they do not call back
     I just went on there website and was redirected to action fraud as the site has been closed due to suspicion of fraud
     Looks like Ive lost more money trying to reduce loses on carbon

400. All so called investments from cold calls are, as far as I’m concerned, SCAMS. I now, with no evidence, other than it’s a cold call, with NO not accepted as an answer, put Graphene in the same bucket with Carbon, Wine, Diamonds, Gold, exit strategists etc…etc…
     Ultimately, they care only about their end not yours as their money is made UP FRONT, if they tell you they make their ‘cut’ on sale of your investment, also run away!
     I have made ZERO from cold caller investments…. they on the other hand have made an enormous profit and fools out of all of us! Some have been caught, more will be. I hope they sweat in their sleep because their day is coming… Two of my ex ‘investment’ proprietors are on prison food..

401. Re post 394, I too have been contacted by FE Wealth Management who, so far, have today e-mailed me a “welcome Letter”. They haven’t yet made me an offer though the guy there seemed extremely anxious to get an offer in today. It all sounds very fishy to me!

402. @Gummidge (#394),

     I also had contact with FE Wealth Management recently. The offer they made was £4.90 a credit, the supposed buyer is ‘CICC’ (a Chinese company) and there was a 10% ‘surety bond’ – refundable, of course(!)
     First they insisted on me signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement, saying the surety document would not be sent without it (but they sent it anyway).
     The website address was only registered in October – the reason he gave was that the domain name had to be re-registered each time the website was modified (I seriously doubt that).
     They are FCA-registered, but with an EEA passport, so who knows what protection that really gives?
     Somewhat convincing, but enough mistakes were made to ring alarm bells.

403. I’d like to wish all those who have suffered losses through the gross mis-selling of carbon ‘investments’ a Happy Christmas and a more prosperous 2014. Hopefully we will see more action from the authorities to curtail the scandalous activities of the unscrupulous traders and that many more of them will be entertained at Her Majesty’s pleasure on prison food.

404. May I add my heartful wish to your second sentence re authorities. A strange thing happened today I received a christmas card from Eliot Moore who have disappeared from sight with my 3000 investment. Is this meant to be a thank you for the present or a sick joke? Also it seems that Gemmax who hold my Enviro credits will charge a liquid fee if I sell them before a year’s possession!!! Happy Christsmas and a more rewarding year to you all.

405. I have also been called by FE wealth management and in fact am expecting a call in the next 2 days. They have offered me around £29000 for my VRE’s which is around the price I paid.
     Another company have told me the VER’s are worth between 1p and 70p max.
     It is amazing that FE have not read the bad press !!
     Have they been reported to the fraud squad ??

406. @john arnold – Thanks for this. Here’s a recent REDD-Monitor post about FE Wealth Management:

     FE Wealth Management is running a carbon credit recovery room scam

     Please contact Action Fraud to tell them that FE Wealth Management cold called you, either via their website or by ringing them up on 0300 123 2040.

     

407. I was also contacted by FE Wealth Management offering me an exit for my 3500 VERs (Bought them through M H Carbon in Aug 2012)and they wanted 10% deposit upfront after they sent me a Non Disclosure agreement. I did not believe them as there were many in-consistancies. They never answered the phone on their website and when they rang there number was withheld and each time they emailed it was a different persons name. So I smelt the rat. when I told the person that I am not going to part with any more money for what ever purpose even returnable deposit, he was very cross and said he cant keep explaining this to me. Then he said it was up to me if I wanted to move further to make the profit or put the phone down. I said I was not interested if I had to paart with further money evn if was a small amount. He said it was up to me if I wanted to contact them again on there terms. I have not contacted them and have not heard from them either.

     Further more some people from Global Commodities have been contacting me saying that if I make some investments with them in blue or yellow diamonds worth £3000 to £5000 then they will be able to offer me an exit for my VERs. I am not convinced about this. Does any one know about this company and if they are genuine.

     Raj

408. @Raj – I wrote about FE Wealth Management here (I think the headline is self explanatory):

     FE Wealth Management is running a carbon credit recovery room scam

     The company’s website has now gone.

     Global Commodities sounds like it’s running a similar scam. They cold called you. No reputable company would cold call you. They want payment in advance. They are offering you an exit for your near-worthless VERs.

409. FE wealth man have said they will sell my VER’s for more than I paid for them and will only take 5% of the profit.
     The fact is these companies change their tune to whatever they think they can get away with. There is no evidence that any of them can actually sell the VER’s for any amount and also they cannot access most of my VER’s anyway since MH Carbon did not lodge them with any registry Global Commodities are the same. It amazes me that they keep calling but unfortunately there may be people still handing over money for various reasons

410. I have found this site very useful for understanding others’ woes. I am an MHCarbon victim and my latest approach is from Carter & Campbell who can sell my credits for £9 (for an insurance payment of only 10%) as they have futures contract for that amount. They have checked by list of projects and holdings and assure me they are with Citadel Trustees. The only snag is that the list I gave them has a false project in it. This confirms the scam.

     I have two questions of the group:
     Q1: Does anyone have information on whether MHCarbon Holdings is likely to make progress in getting our credits registered on a reputable registry in a form that allows us to retie them should we wish?

     Q2: I belatedly read post #391 by Bob mentioning Project 722, which is one of mine. Is someone wanting to buy these credits to retire them?

     Thanks to all

     I

411. @Hugo – Thanks for this – see this comment for a bit more evidence that Carter & Campbell is running a recovery room scam.

     1. I assume you mean MH Carbon Nominees. Obviously, I don’t know the answer to this question – but read this commentary from Richard Smith on Naked Capitalism.

     2. I don’t know the answer to this either. But your question is based on a comment by an anonymous person on the internet about “a company in China”.

412. Where do all these companies come from?
     Has anyone heard of Consultants Europe? They profess to be able to sell all my credits at £5+ PROVIDING I pay an upfront charge of 45P per credit.

     Den

413. They conned hundreds with carbon credits. Now attemting to commoditise diamonds with the same boiler room activities targetting unsuspecting vulnerable people. Does anyone have any info on these guys at Mulberry Wynford Ltd? http://mulberrywynford.com/About-Mulberry-Wynford.html

     If you have bought any investments from Mulberry Wynford in the last 18 months. Please leave your info and get in touch.

414. Oh happy days! Another couple of cold calls, but which are becoming fewer and further between, offering mining IPO, eco-investments. Within 30 seconds I say (in a very bored tone) “I am not interested”, after repeating “I am not interested” the caller said “then I am not interested in you” and hung up. Result!

415. I do not answer any Withheld, Out of Area or even 0203 numbers any more; if they want me, they can leave a message as requested. They are learning, somedays I almost miss them not ringing….. like a hole in the head. Unfortunately sometimes it is an ok NHS number!
     Bob

416. As a comment on Bob’s remarks I’ve been contacted in the last week by Eton Stanley and Consultants Europe.Have others been contacted by these people?
     Eton Stanley I dismissed immediately – offering some ridiculous amount per credit but Consultants Europe, though having an 0203 number, seem to offer a possible way out, at £5.75 a credit – at least their operator’s speak the Queen’s english as opposed to most of the louts that have assailed me.
     Any comments please.

     Den

417. Anyone heard of Simon Carter at Delmont Group – they offer an exit plan for Carbon Credits.

418. @Den Etonstanley is running a recovery room scam – see this comment and the following discussion.

     I couldn’t find anything about Consultants Europe (on either duedil.com or opencorporates.com and a google search doesn’t help much). If you had a website or phone number for the company, that might help.

     But it doesn’t really matter what the company calls itself. I’m afraid you’re on a “suckers list”. No legitimate company would cold call you. If Consultants Europe rings again, ask them where the company is registered (ask for the number) and ask for a website. Then report them to Action Fraud (0300 123 2040).

419. @Douglas Smith – No legitimate company would cold call you.

     Does “Delmont Group” have a website? Are they asking for an advance fee? How did they get your phone number? How do they say they will sell your carbon credits?

420. Thanks for this Chris,
     They do have a website: consultantseurope.com and they reckon they’ve been trading since 2008. Of all the “off setters” that have contacted me they are the most well mannered & persuasive.
     Den

421. @Den – The website was registered in 2008, to someone called Peter Delamere, who gave an address in Andalucia. But when we look at the history of the website on archive.org, since 2008 there’s only one record, dated 29 May 2013 (and that is a message saying “403 Forbidden”). So whatever the company has been doing in the past, it didn’t involve much on its website.

     Why would a company that boasts a “multilingual team of experienced consultants” and an office just round the corner from Place de la Bastille in Paris have a website written only in English?

     The fact that they are “well mannered” and “persuasive” doesn’t mean a thing. They rang you, which no legitimate company would do.

422. Again, many thanks for this Chris. I had already decided not to accept the offer on the basis of what you’d said in the past regarding cold calling etc.
     I’m most grateful for your wisdom in all of this fiasco.
     Den

423. Den. Trusting well mannered and persuasive people is how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place.
     Proceed with extreme caution.
     If they want any kind of upfront payment from you, be it as a deposit, admin fee, Crest account fee or other such rubbish, DO NOT PAY.
     If they want details of your credits so they can check that you are the owner, they are lieing. The credits are not registered in your name so No-one external can verify your beneficial ownership.

424. “The simplest advice is just to slam down the phone on anyone who calls you to sell an investment. That’s it. Simple and to the point. After all, no legitimate investment company ever cold calls for potential customers.”

     Tony Levene, “Invest in gold, oil or land? Don’t let scammers take you for a sucker“, The Guardian, 2 November 2013

425. In 2013 I was contacted by 3 different companies offering to help sell my carbon credits after demise of MH Carbon. They all wanted some form of additional payment to facilitate these would either be to convert them credits to another market or to enable them to bundle with another set. I could not understand why if the credits were worth something they could not just be sold with commission and did not want to risk loosing further money to another scam so did not proceed. At the time I reported the companies to the fraud department although I was left with the impression that nothing would actually get done about it. I’ve not had time to follow up since. I’m interested to know now, 10 months later, whether anyone has had any success in selling their VERs or getting any compensation?

426. I have not had any progress but still get calls from various ‘Good Samaritons’ If they want money upfront then they are crooks.

427. Hi
     As have been “scammed” by AGT and reading the comments above I would think there is still a hope out there to get some money back.
     Consider our VERs etc. are legal wouldn’t it be possible to start a broker/trading company/etc with the aim to offer all our credits to companies who would like to offset carbon emission?

     Would be interesting to hear some comments apart from the obvious “accept the loss, got on with your life” ;)

     Thanks / Ulrik

428. @Ulrik: Nice idea, but why would companies bother to buy credits from private individuals when they can almost certainly get newer vintage credits much more cheaply, directly from a reputable carbon offsetting company who will also be able to carry out the required due diligence on supplier projects as part of the deal? Note that I said “reputable” carbon offsetting company, not a glorified boiler room based in, say, Marbella. The carbon credits you have purchased were almost certainly not intended for investment purposes and there is no “market” to speak of, as such. So that’s probably what people mean by “accept the loss, get on with your life”. What you can do, though, is report the matter to Action Fraud and the relevant authorities. Note the recent arrests in Spain for alleged boiler room scamming offenses, and the publicity generated by the recent film Wolf of Wall Street. The sooner these people are locked up the better.

429. i brought some cer’s a little over a year ago, the person who sold them to me worked for a company called ASJ international called me quite often for the fist 6 months and the dwindled away. i have tryed over the last few weeks to contact them on 3 different phone numbers i have, but all engaged apart from the one line which is a mtivated voice asking to give my full name and then says it cannot recognise what i am saying.

     Mark

430. I refer to two recent articles in the UK press: one refers to the arrest of 110 fraudsters who sold carbon credits and other inappropriate “investments” to people like me. The other is specifically on the company Capital Alternatives, which has already been found guilty of fraud – and is in the process of appealing the court’s ruling. As I am unfamiliar with the UK legal system, could someone tell me what this means for us “victims”? If these people/companies are found to be guilty, will the court order them to repay the “invetsors”? Assuming the scammers have already spent the mony on Aston Martins and Lear Jets, what happens then? Is there hope for us with the news of these arrests/guilty verdicts? Tks.

431. @Andy – Thanks for this. I wrote about the Capital Alternatives ruling here:

     Financial Conduct Authority wins High Court case against Capital Alternatives

     The end of that post deals with the possibility of getting some of the money back. Please also read the discussion in the comments.

     P.S. You may find this post interesting, about City Road Communications, Capital Alternatives’ PR firm:

     Response from City Road Communications about the High Court ruling against Capital Alternatives

     And here’s my post about the 110 arrests:

     110 arrested in international police operation to “decimate” boiler room crime

432. i brought some cer’s off a company called ‘ASJ’ a year ago
     Mike was asking last june if there was anybody who had brought CER’s
     Yes again i think i’ve been scammed
     Mark

433. Does anyone know or had dealings with Fortis Finances over selling their Carbon credits – it sounds a good deal, bur I would like to know the company. I have been dealing with David Knight.

434. @mervyn – Thanks for this. Do you have a website or any details about Fortis Finances? If any company (no matter what it calls itself) contacts you offering you a good deal on selling your near-worthless carbon credits, it’s almost certainly a scam.

435. I have been contacted by Tony Zhang (from China) of China International Capital Holdings in China. He promised a little higher price than what I had paid for my VERs bought through MHCarbon in 2012. He seemed to know what VERs I held without me telling him and don’t know how he got my number but sounded very genuine. He wants me to sign a non disclosure agreement before he gives me value of my holdings but does not want any money. He also knows how scamming people want money upfront and told me what is going on. Still I am not convinced on the grounds how he got my contact and already knew what VERs I held. Did anyone have had experience with these people? I have attached there info here.

     Tao (Tony) Zhang
     Vice President
     Minority Shareholder
     Director, Member Audit Committee

     China International Capital Holdings
     One Corporate Avenue, No. 222 Hubin Road,
     17 F #9, Luwan District, Shanghai, PRC, 200021

     Phone: +86 21 5116 7174
     Fax: Hong Kong Admin Office 852 3006 4291
     Web: http://www.cichold.cn.com
     Email: [email protected]

436. David Knight has been in touch with me. The website for Fortis is http://www.fortcomfinancial.com
     The registered address of the company is in Cardiff but they trade according to the website from 227 Strand which is above a shop opposite the RCJ

437. that is my reaction, but he assured me it was a world wide insurance/investment company – I have now found out they call themselves ‘Fort Commercial Finances’ website ‘Fortcomfinancial.com.

438. I have had a lot of dealings for over 6 months with Tony. He did sound very plausible. No money required upfront but oh dear after a month or two there were hiccups in the deal which required sorting out. A foreign government was stopping the deal because the people who had sold me the credits had borrowed money on the strength of the value of the credits and guess what? they had scarpered with the loan never to be seen again etc etc. All very believably put over by Tony and his brother who were operating as Renmimbi Yaun Holdings in Beijing. My advice is to bargepole him.

439. It’s happening with others too. They will ask you for a ‘surety bond’ about 10% of your holdings. HELLO!

440. Hi Aslan: Have you had much contact with David? What are your thoughts on his proposition for selling the carbon credits?

441. Hello Mervyn
     He called a few times and said eventually that he was in a position to offer to buy my carbon credits at a little over twice what I paid. He said that the next step was for me to complete some personal validation forms – money laundering I suppose. I said I was happy to sell in principle and to pay a commission but that I would not be willing to pay any money up front. I have heard nothing since.

     The Strand ‘office’ if it exists can only be a room above a shop and the website gives me no confidence. Also of course there is lots of stuff about there not being any real retail market for carbon credits. To be honest I do not have any expections but to accept the loss on what I paid for them.

442. Hello Aslan,
     Many thanks for your reply – He quoted me a figure just below the cost, but well worth taking. I agreed to the commission, but then up came a bond to be paid upfront, which would exhaust any remaining savings I have. Much waffling about the need for the bond the same as all the others. I agreed to commission, but upfront payment …… I agree the website is vague, especially as he said they were a worldwide insurance company!!! He is to send me a non-disclosure agreement for credit investigation, but has trouble using my email address. So I wait for further developments. My only offer would be to increase the commission!!!!!

443. I have had dealings with Fortcomfinancial.com recently. They asked for a ‘surety bond’ about 10%. Strand office now not contactable, as is the agent I was dealing with. Very Fishy!!

444. Hello Mervyn
     I had heard nothing more for several days as per my previous response. Then suddenly I get three telephone calls in a day asking where my response is – well one to my landline, one to my mobile and a follow to check on my email address!!!.

     I say I hadn’t received anything and they say they will send it again. Still nothing in my email. I think that the risk here is of building up an expectation of a return and then using the psychological weapon of asking for money to make it happen to avoid disappointment. I will definitely not agree to send any money up front. I do also fret a bit about this confidentiality agreement. What is this for and who is it to protect? But as I haven’t seen it I can’t really take a firm view. If they want to collect more information about me like copies of documents etc. can I trust them??

445. The bond required is 10% of the settlement figure, negotiated down from 20%! Am I lucky! This settlement amount is similar to all other offers I have been made.
     ‘Sachs Manfred’ say the credits have been identified as being in my name but could or would not provide evidence! (they know more than me and won’t share.?)
     Having said I would not pay the bond required, it emerged that it would be possible to exit the credits by project.
     The conversation finished as follows “Well tbh Mr X I’m not bothered if you choose to exit with us or not” To which I replied, “Fine we are of similar mind then!” I ended the conversation. What I know is, if you push these people far enough, they resort to rudeness (like the coloured diamond guy) and frankly, that says it all!

446. Hi Aslan,
     I have the same scenario – Dave every few days asks have I received the documentation and when I say no he checks my email address, and today a girl rings up also to check and then checks my email again. I find it odd as I would have thought it would be better to push as fast as possible but maybe your explanation is right – luckily they only have my email address!!! My bond is to be 1%, if my credit search is clear. But no money upfront from me!

447. I have a copy of the Non Disclosure agreement, which is a USA based document. It has clauses that I would not agree to so have not signed it, I am not even sure that it is legal in the UK. It is based on laws and regulations of the State of Colarado.

448. Hi Aslan,
     Just a correction to my last reply – David assured me the bond is 1% of the proceeds, but on further checking it is actually 10% – so I don’t know if this was deliberate or not!!!! so we are the same! I see Bob has actually received a NDA relevant to Colorado!! Certainly the whole scheme seems bogus. completely

449. Pretty sure Fortcomfinancial is a scam operation.Offers to sell your investment. ‘Finds’ a buyer and then asks for a 10% surety before the ‘deal’ is completed. Investor pays the surety, they disappear. Office numbers disconnected, agent uncontactable,(anyone had dealings with a Brandon Richards?), website now ‘blocked’, deemed a phishing site. Keep clear.

450. @Osbourne – Thanks for this. There’s an FCA warning about Fortcomfinancial here. Apparently it was a clone of another company.

451. Hi All,

     Can I just advise everybody that has been receiving calls ANY company to ‘exit’ them from the VERs/CERs/EUAS.

     Unfortunately, if your receiving these calls you have already been scammed with no chance of recovering your cash unless it was paid for by credit card.

     Your personal details, and the details of any of your ‘investments’ will have been sold on to another group of con artists by the firm you were dealing shortly after they disappeared, that is how they know about your trades and situation.

     ”

     There is no exit strategy available to you, there never has been and there never will be.

     The brokers know that you are in a very vulnerable state and susceptible to more bad advice in the pursuit of recovering your money, remember that you have already been manipulated once, so you can be easily manipulated again.
     Change your contact details immediately and DO NOT throw any more money down the drain, you will only find more disappointment guys.

452. Hi Aslan,
     Just received my NDA proposal – Not USA, but ‘FCA Bank of England -Prudential Regulation Authority’ so they send out different NDA authorities!! What a shower; no wonder they don’t want us to talk to anyone, but luckily we have Chris Lang to whom we owe a big debt of thanks! ‘Good Advice’ has the perfect answer to all these people and it should be stuck on the wall above the computer!!!!

453. Over eagerness to sell a deal is always a warning sign I guess. Perhaps they gave up on me because I made it very clear right at the outset that there was no way that I would be prepared to put any money up front – only to pay a commission.

454. Interesting…! Re. my NDA.. Having decided NOT to pay (it was NEVER going to happen) £13k for ‘surety’ to some Chinese firm via a UK intermediary, before I get my money ha! I was subsequently offered to ‘exit’ by project and finally told he doesn’t care what I do! How professional, they all crack eventually :-)
     I now have another 2 calls. One guy will GUARANTEE in writing to sell my ver’s for a hitherto undetermined amount, yes there is a ‘small’ up front fee but a guarantee? I gotta see this, they must have a way out. It’s now about wasting their time now. I do still hope, whilst knowing there is NO HOPE! Will keep you posted.. All their calls are recorded in case.. PS. Anyone know what EUA case number 2246
     RE Carbon Credit License Change is. It certainly doesn’t google!

455. Eco-Synergies Nominees Limited are the Co set up by Citadel Trustees to hold CCs for people who bought through World Carbon/Worldwide Commodities and others.
     The Sec of State for BIS has issued a petition to wind up E-SN Ltd on the grounds that it would be in the public interest.
     Apparently there is no direct criticism of E-SN Ltd but it has been included in a larger action by the SoS against Cos unrelated to it.
     CCs registered in the name of E-SN will continue to be held for individuals as beneficial owners, and are not at risk. After the petition is heard, on 1st May, they will be handed over to the official receiver who will be responsible for arranging the safeguarding of them.
     Citadel Trustees Ltd have changed their name to Highpoint Trustees Ltd, to avoid being mistaken for another company with a very similar name. It should be emphasised that Citadel/Highpoint is fully and properly registered and fairly longstanding; a part of the Hutchinson Group.
     It would be very interesting to know who the companies are that are being wound up in the public interest and why; anyone know how to find that out?

456. @Raj
     China International Capital Holding must be another scam as website only created 28 February 2014. They also approached my father with an offer for his Greater Chinese Beverage Holdings (believe this was the initial scam, lost money through recovery offers before including fees to register shares properly prior to sale, money upfront for Tax, etc.)
     Offer is no money upfront, 1% commission charge so sounds safe but there must be a sting in it somewhere. Told my father to stay clear but curious how this scam would work. Thank you everyone for all the tips to recognise scams. Unfortunately only recently found that my father has been throwing good money after bad!

457. I have had three recent contacts from companies offering to get me out of the carbon or, rather, two offering to get me out and one offering to take legal action to get monies repaid. In the first category are BradLodge Corporate Trading and Gen Equities. The legal approach is form a company called Harriet Taylor. Does anyone know anything about any of these?

458. Today I got a letter in the post (not e-mail) from a company called G2G Investments Ltd signed by a Roseanne Cromwell. The letter claims that VCS/VERs can now be sold in the China market & that they are working with two regulated agencies in China for buying/selling these. It states that my carbon credits will be sold in Shenzhen on the China Emissions Exchanges market & that this platform opened for trading on the 16th June this year. Apparently, current spot price for VCS/VERs is £6-£9 depending on project type. Then it says in bold: we charge 8.5% commission only after sale.
     Has anybody else also been contacted by them? If so, what was the outcome of your discussion. I haven’t called them yet, but can’t help feeling there is a catch somewhere.
     Chris Lang, do you know anything about this company?

459. Approached by Gen eq. Young lady was first intro as I recall (soft approach). Amazingly they could find all my credits in my name on a register – which they are not – but could not forward me a copy of the ‘evidence’. It’s possible it was the ‘salesman’ from these guys that had a strop when I wouldn’t agree. I have discovered that with many of these cold calls, regardless of product and there are many, they show their true colours when they can’t sell you. Bottom line is, as we all know, our credits are worthless. If they were worth the £120-£200K I been offered, they would just buy me out don’t you think. The legal wrapping up of all these Carbon Credit companies tells us the reality I’m afraid…

460. Same story of being chased hard by a cold seller who said they had a buyer for my carbon credits but needing a surety bond. I thought I would add them to the list. A group calling themselves LK Advisors – the name given was Frank White and the other Richard someone, James Spencer. Their big claim to fame is that they are FSA regulated. In fact they are a clone firm. LK Advisers with an e is regulated, LK Advisors with an o is not. And they give their website as http://www.lksecurities.com which is a defunct website.The FCA posted a warning of this clone http://www.fca.org.uk/news/warnings/lk-advisors-clone. Humourously their surety bond letter has a hyperlink to an older website of Lukas Kantor Securities which was their clone company reported in May http://www.fca.org.uk/news/warnings/lukas-kantor-securities-clone. They didn’t even bother changing the telephone number of the two firms. The warnings on cloned firms are posted here http://www.fca.org.uk/news/warnings

461. has anyone been contacted by the following Co
     Brookcourt. a director Oliver James Burton (FCA ref no OJB00020) offered to sell my credits for £48731.09 and pay by 18th July. I was required to pay a fee of £5385 to enable their solicitors to convert from VCR’s to CER’s. Amazing to be able to get this sorted and for a profit within a few days !!??
     Incidentally the company mentioned on the FCA register was FDR Investment Management Ltd

462. @john arnold – It’s a scam. First there’s an advance fee involved. Second, there is no way of converting VCRs to CERs. Third, even if there was, the most recent sale of CERs was for €0.18 each.

463. The old phrase, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is, or in your case “Amazing” will place us all in good stead! I have been ‘promised’ £140,000 and £200,000 but though I’d love to believe it, it complete and utter lies! They should be jailed for even suggesting it!
     Really, nothing and nobody that has ‘promised’ me great returns has actually done so! Keep what you have in your pocket!

464. thanks Chris
     I had no intention of pursuing this offer
     Would be nice to be able to flush these people out

465. I have been contacted by David Lang at Fredrick Formby . He told me he was a relative of Chris Lang and pointed me in the direction of this blog for proof of experience in this market. I foolishly bought 3000 vcs credits through MH carbon a few years ago. David sounded very promising when he told me i could upgrade my holdings and sell them onto ryanair who needed them cheaply. I sent £14,0000 away to a bank in phillipenes on june 20th but havent heard anything since. I am expecting a payment soon but am a bit nervous. Does anyone know David? Has Chris lang helped people to sell before?

466. @roger r williams – You wrote a similar comment three days ago, but then the amount was £18,0000. In any case, my response is the same – Fredrick Formby is running a Recovery Room scam. I have no relatives called David Lang. I have never “personally represented” any carbon trading projects and I will never do so.

     In November 2013, I wrote a post about what to do if you’ve been scammed into buying carbon credits as an investment. Please read the whole post. The final point is particularly important:

     Do not hand over more money to companies who claim that they can sell your credits, no matter how convincing they sound. That is the Recovery Room part of the scam.

467. The fact that carbon credits are a very complex, murky investment sector, I’m sure private individuals, like me, who have invested into the market with all the best of intentions, find it very difficult to navigate with all of this misinformation and misdirection. As a man of the cloth myself, the good book provides many a warning regarding “false prophets”, and while much of the information provided throughout this blog is interesting, it is always of paramount importance to investigate the source of any such information; I would like to point out that the author/host of this site, Mr Chris Lang, is indeed, a blogger, with the information provided to many an individual coming from Mr Lang’s own personal point of view. Prior to my ministry calling, I worked for several years within the financial industry, and I can state from experience, and the authority that experience brings, that genuine companies in fact often do make cold calls, and on many an occasion also require minimum fees for private individuals to fulfil prior to entering a business relationship! It would be interesting to know more about Mr Lang’s credentials regarding the financial world and its inner workings. Do you have professional experience within the financial industry, i.e. are you a qualified broker of some description yourself? From what perspective of authority do you execute the various claims you have made throughout your site regarding financial companies? Are you presently based within the UK? I ask from a perspective of genuine interest; as an elderly gentleman I tend not to believe everything I read in the newspapers, and especially on the web, let alone from a site that would appear to be a simple blog that seemingly asserts itself as a key authority, with many individuals also appearing to believe without question Mr Lang’s various claims and accusations. This site and the information it provides may very well be providing viable information, although I suspect that it simply serves as providing further confusion to an already shadowy market by creating increasing doubt amongst its readers! I await your reply.

468. Re. John Robertson (if that’s your genuine identity),

     Rather than questioning Chris Lang’s credentials or launching an ad hominem attack on him I would humbly suggest that you would be better served by asking whether even a single one of the many readers on this site has ever managed to successfully exit the carbon markets with a profit, or even at all.

     The Carbon Market, as we all now know, is a totally unsuitable platform for private investors and has been plagued by shady operators, sharp practices, mis-selling and false/broken promises.

     Based on the experience of the many readers here I think its not unreasonable to say that there has been a huge scam intentionally perpetrated by many of the players in this market, who knew well that their customers stood little or no chance of ever recouping their investment, much less turning a profit. If you can point to one single investor that has ever done so then please post the details.

469. @John Robertson – How nice to hear from someone with a background in finance! And from someone who must be honest because he’s now a “man of the cloth”, and an an elderly gentleman!

     Pity that your comment is just ad hominem.

     Yes, I’m a blogger. If what I wrote was simply my opinion without evidence, then of course it would be of little value.

     So, instead of reading what I write, take a look at what Andrew Ager said to the City of London Police in 2012. From 2008-2012, Ager was Head of Carbon and Emissions at Jeffries Bache, a subsidiary of Jefferies Group, a global investment banking firm. He’s now head of trading at Vertis Environmental Finance:

     Why you should not buy voluntary carbon credits as an investment: A carbon trader explains

     Or you could read what Mr. Registrar Baister said in the High Court in November 2012, when he ordered Foxstone Carr Limited into liquidation:

     “[T]he missing information customers aren’t told is the considerable difficulty they face in disposing of the carbon credits. The usual cold calling methods are used to sell and to give the impression that the credits are likely to go up in value and can be traded easily. In fact this is not the case. Information has been obtained that the older the credit the less desirable they are and therefore the less valuable the credit becomes over time. This information is concealed from consumers.”

     You could look at all the other companies that have been closed down after investigations by the Insolvency Service – here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here.

     Then you could read the warning that the Financial Conduct Authority put out about carbon credits and the warning about Gemmax Solutions (the company previously known as Carbon Neutral Investments).

     Then you could read the series of posts on the website Naked Capitalism about Carbon Neutral Investments and Advanced Global Trading. They are linked from here and here. The Naked Capitalism website was set up by Yves Smith, who is a financial expert, having been working in and around the financial services industry since 1980.

470. @Philip Howard – I’ve just written a post about Bradlodge Corporate Trading:

     Bradlodge Corporate Trading: Yet another scam company cashing in on carbon credits

     And here’s one about GEN Equities from a couple of weeks ago:

     GEN Equities: Another advance fee recovery room scam

471. Bradlodge also contacted me last week and gave me the same spiel. He said he would send me all the details, but I told him I had no money to put up front – he said nothing and I received no email!!!!

472. Hi. http://www.carbon-exit-solutions.com has been emailing. Taking no notice but maybe I should just get them excited and make all sorts of promises! Seems only fair?:-)
     Has anyone seen/signed paperwork for Grant Thornton as liquidators? Is there a point as they probably get the best pay day? Don’t think there’s any money there? Any thoughts?

473. The Joint liquidators for all the recently wound up companies associated with Eco-Synergies, including World Carbon and Worldwide Commodities, are Baker Tilly and Abbot Fielding.
     These liquidators have good international connections and make their money by tracking down fraudsters and recovering assets.
     They are good at it, enjoy doing it and are fairly successful.I strongly suggest that you cooperate with them, as they are your only hope of recovering some of your funds.

474. I have not heard from an new boiler room investment scam artists for a few months now so I had perhaps thought that the last one I told to their face I had reported to http://ico.org.uk/concerns, http://www.tpsonline.org.uk and http://www.actionfraud.police.uk, after also wasting a fair bit of their time seeming like I might invest, had finally got the message and had me taken off the suckers list of investors that all these boiler rooms seem to work from.

     But no not a bit of it as today I hear from a new bunch of con artists who go by the name of Zilberman Gotz Ltd (www.zilbermangotz.com) with a proposition that I pitch between £10,000 and £100,000 of my money (presumably depending on how stupid and formerly well off I was) in to what they even admit is a goldmine that was previously closed down due to lack of economic viability. But they assure me they have now entered in to fresh negotiations with the government of Outer Bongo Bongo Land (I forget where exactly they claimed the mine was) and are about to reopen the mine shortly and make it a huge success.

     The rest I am sure you can guess as it is all the usual stuff of how are my investments doing, what investments do I have, am I happy with the returns I am getting, what is my risk profile etc, etc. But anyhow when I look them up at http://whocallsme.com/~sys~/r/?eu=4M0TatGUBl1QCZlLjMDMzgjMzYDM9IXZi1WduZCRUx0KaR1THtiTB1kUFJETJpVPl1WYu9DdzlGboNmchV2c55WYw12bj9SbvNmL0NWZylGZz52bpRXYtJ3bm5yd3d3LvoDc0RHa and find they were a dormant company till last year and have not filed their latest accounts I challenge them on it. But needless to say they tell me all is still fine as they are also working with http://www.iprcap.com, who they assure be being a limited partnership as are as safe and reliable as can be (even though a limited partnership assures one only of the ability of the partners to avoid personal liability if the whole enterprise goes belly up).

     Then when I still seem doubtful they mention a Mr Matin J McNally who they say is responsible for their compliance at IPR Capital and that I can be sure to count on him as he is an FCA regulated person and a chartered accountant as shown at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/indivBasicDetails.do?sid=407748

     Well on they go and I give the guy a bit of a hard time with saying this is just like all the other scam investments who have called me before.

     So suddenly without the usual polite promise to call back in 2 days to see how much I think I can afford I am suddenly transferred to their Compliance Officer (otherwise known in the Boiler Room Trade as a Closer rather than an Opener). He wants to know my home address and my bank account details etc at which point I demand how he can sleep at nights participating in such a blatant con and trying to defraud middle aged and elderly people out of their savings. I then hang up.

     Well what do you know but I then get another call back from the same Compliance Officer chortling and laughing and generally being derisive of me till I hang the phone up him again. Yet five minutes later I get another call back from someone now claiming to be a senior manager and asking if all is well and apologising for any previous misbehaviour by staff. I then tell him where to stick his fake investments in no uncertain terms and hang up the phone again and this time am not rung back further.

     The bottom line is that yes this is just yet another bunch of these hard bitten ruthless boiler room conmen working to just the same ruthless formula as before. So to anyone out there with plenty of money and a somewhat naive trusting personality yes sadly this is just another con like all the other ones and you must keep yourself well away from it. I would have thought that the mere words “closed goldmine” (clearly some sense of humoir or irony there by the scammers) would in themselves be enough to bring to you to your senses but as I know that is not the case I will just say yes this really is another con as I have documented in full at http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/02035409750#p770135409930002392 So pleasem please don’t believe them and please do keep your money tucked safely away in your own interest earning bank account.

475. Here’s another one for you:
     Harrison Stokes are offering to sell my VCCs for more than twice the bought price value. I can’t find their Company details on any web search and the caller admitted that they were less than a year old.
     He proposed that the monies for my credits would be paid into a client holding account and that the buyer would add into this his solicitors fees. I would then be paid the full amount, having signed over the ownership rights – and only then, after I’d been paid the full amount would I receive the legal fees for “the 52 page” legal document.
     Mmmmm!
     Anyone else been contacted by this lot?

476. they rang me on Tuesday, which seems to be the main day I get these calls. when I said I did not want to talk to them he replied “you really do need to talk to me”. I said “I really do not!” and put the ‘phone down.

477. Ah, again I’ve been ‘phoned by Harrison Stokes, by a different broker offering me the same exit. He said to expect a call from “the client” which I got after about half an hour. I asked for a price more than three times what I paid for the credits, which was readily accepted. Congratulations all round!! A case of wine on it’s way to me! Same old deal – £17K for legal fees.
     Completion within 14 days. Ho Hum!!
     I’ll see whether the wine arrives before sending the paperwork to the fraud squad.

     Den

478. I have just received from ‘Operation Toll’ from @ city-of-london.pnn.police.uk detailing investigation into Enviro Associates as a boiler room scam and wanting anyone to report dealings with them. Enviro have replied that this police fraud investigation is not official and offers some reasons including the email address above, but in fact I am in touch with Claire Bailey on another fraud investigation from that email address which is very much active and ongoing. Also Enviro is connected to Gemmax Solutions as custodian of the purchases!!! Should I respond to to the above email on my purchase in 2013 which was predicated on their selling my carbon credits, which of course was bogus?

479. @Mervyn – Despite currently being in contact with someone on the same email address regarding another matter, it would and should be prudent to contact either action fraud directly or indeed the City of London police directly to clarify whether it is or is not official. Both parties of which you mention, which have told you conflicting statements- Statements which are indeed in the favour of the origin of the statement, which can only be clarified by either action fraud or City of London police. Call Action Fraud or City of London Police directly on the number provided on their respective websites. Then you have the absolute correct answer.

480. Back to MHCarbon….the insolvency of MHCarbon Ltd is being handled by Grant Thornton. I understand that the VCS credits sold to me (and others) are “locked” in the company and cannot be allocated to us investors to retire or (if possible) sell. We are therefore creditors to the company. This means that Grant Thornton will attempt to sell the credits and will pay themselves first from any proceeds. Given their astronomic risk-premiumed fee rates, this means there is a negligible chance of receiving any value from the credits (perhaps no change there) or even having the ability to retire them. Before I sign away my rights to Grant Thornton, does anyone else have a take on this? Thanks

481. My understanding was that the credits were held on your behalf by a separate Nominee company so the liquidation of MH Carbon should not affect your title and therefore ability to sell/retire/transfer etc.

     I have no idea how Grant Thornton can translate this to being a creditor and have any rights to sell or otherwise dispose of an asset to which you have beneficial ownership (however worthless they may be)

482. Same with the Forex scam, from which I recovered .03% but the liquidators no doubt got paid well! They just want a pay day and we come 2nd…

483. I took your prudent advice and and, as I expected, I am assured that it was a genuine fraud investigation. I was not surprised because they are connected to Gemmax Solutions, an old friend of ours!!!, and their enticement to sell my carbon credits but to buy £900 more credits first and of course they have not followed up on their promise.. The main person being investigated is Luke Ryan, but I myself had no contact with him. I would recommend others who received a similar email to respond.

484. I have been sent another email from City of London Police, confirming that their previous emails were genuine and in addition have now suspended Enviro Associates domain and lines are suspended with an Action Fraud message and again asking for any victims to report to Action Fraud.

485. I dont think the email from city london police is genuine. I also received the email. If you look at the email address domain name it looks very wrong.

486. @Dabe – Please read the comment above from Anonymous help. It might help if you told us what the email address domain name is on the email you received. But I’d advise phoning Action Fraud or City of London Police to ask their advice.

487. The email from [email protected] is genuine. All “xxx.police.uk” domains are reserved for the police force. The police wrote to my home address and it included contact details including an email from this domain. I spoke to them on a couple of occasions and went to Bishopsgate police station to give evidence. There are a number of investigations into carbon trading operations and if you have evidence to offer, please do so as it may help all of us. Not so say there is much likelihood of getting any money back but we may be able to help with any charges against the people behind these operations.

     If in any doubt, ask for a switchboard number to call and verify their details. If still not sure, perhaps you could go to your local police station and have them call through to the right department?

488. @SpiceBoy – Thanks for this. On 23 October 2014, City of London Police put out a notice about this – available here. And here’s a screenshot:

     

489. I have just received a call from Rachel Green of Fidelity Capital, offering me £11 per carbon credit and a total of 73,000, of which I must may a 10%deposit, but they are willing to let me contribute 2,000 and they will pay 5,300 up front but I will pay it back when the 73,000 comes through – it sounds ‘too good to be true’ but why go to all this trouble for 2,000?

490. Update on my Fidelity Capital communications – I did not return Rachael Greene’s call, and so today I was rung up by the ‘Director’ and I put down the phone and then immediately I was rung up by ‘ PC Lewis’ who first claimed Fidelity were the liquidators of MHCarbo and when I told him they were not. he replied because MHC had gone into liquidation owing a lot of tax, I would have to pay a large fine and if not be charged and go to court. When I laughed at this, he said a policeman would be coming to my house and I replied if he knew where I lived and he said ‘London’ and I replied, roaring with laughter ‘Ok go to my house in London’ end of call. I thought I had taken a trip to ‘Alice in Wonderland’, but has anybody else had dealings with Fidelity Capital and if not beware of their tactics.

491. Mervyn, go straight to the fraud office and the police [for impersonating the police]. Then go to the liquidators and ask them for the facts and their intended process.

492. I thought I was being left alone by con artists!! I have just been phoned by Carnegie Asset Management, who claimed to sell my portfolio for about the same value of my purchases. ‘Jane’ told me they deal with UNSCCC,a climate change organisation who help people to sell their carbon credits. So she told me that the total sum up front to pay is 5391, less amount loaned by UNSCCC of 3450, leaving me to find 1940. On looking for a website all I found was a nordic Carnegie and no mention of London or anywhere else outside the Nordic countries. Has anyone else been contacted by Carnegie or know anything else about the company.

493. @mervyn – Thanks for this. Please report Carnegie Asset Management to Action Fraud (0300 123 2040). No legitimate company would cold call you. And Carnegie Asset Management is asking for an advance fee. It’s a recovery room scam.

     Incidentally, the organisation “Jane” was referring to is the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). It does not help people to sell their carbon credits.

494. Many thanks for that. I did presume the same, but I needed confirmation. I Probably misheard f for s especially as f makes more sense! I shall report to Action Fraud. I await the next fraudster!!

495. Called yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 14/10/2015) while in Spain (the scammers had picked up my mobile number from my home answerphone) by a new bunch of investment fraudsters who had clearly bought the same old list of possible suckers.

     They were called something or other Asset Management that began I think with an S. Sorry had no pen or paper with me at the time.

     Same old scenario as usual in that the call came from an 020 3 voip number and that the caller tried to kid me they were based in London’s Canary Wharf. Then he went on to ask about any investments I had and if I was happy with how they were doing. You know the same old, same old stuff they always try and that is in the script.

     In any case the scammers have now moved on a new version of the scam as he asked me if I was aware of Peer To Peer Lending. Now of course I am aware of it and keep wanting to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority for letting wellesley.co.uk make deliberately and actively misleading claims about the safety of investing with them in their tv adverts but haven’t got round to it yet.

     But the guy ringing me was clearly of non White British origin also with extremely poor Sarf London English that would only be likely to take in the most gullible of possible punters (most possible suckers being Retired White British folk). I then challenged him about the other investment scammers who had already called me and Action Fraud finally getting round to doing something about some of them, even though they had previously ignored the numerous reports of how the scam operates from people like me and instead chosen to go and interview a few of the convicted scammers in prison instead about their methods.

     None of this deterred my caller in any way (because he was as thick as pig s**t and had the hide of a rhinocerous and could clearly only see pound signs in his eyes). He assured me that they were quite different and then went on to ask if he could email me their prospectus. He then quoted a variant of my email address that I have only ever uniquely provided to investment fraudsters so that I can identify where they are reselling my details to each other!

     So in short beware of a new bunch of scamboys called S**** Asset Management trying to sell you fake Peer To Peer Lending (where almost certainly it is not like wellesley.co.uk with some risk but lending to the kind of risks where you are guaranteed the borrower will not pay back) There are calling from London Voip number 020 3808 0607. So far their emailed prospectus has not arrived. But the successor to Ironport spam filtering Plusnet use does now bounce spam from long established spammers at source and not even let them put it in my possible spam email box. No doubt the gentleman who called me around 4.30pm yesterday will call me back on Monday (19th October) when I have told him I will be back in the UK and will ask for another email address or to post his scammers prospectus to me.

     There are currently no reports for this number on whocallsme.com or other similar sites so the scam appears to be only newly started. Hopefully this time round the boys at actionfraud.police.uk may try to close them down a lot earlier before they defraud too many victims.

496. Like Mervyn I have just been called by someone calling themselves Christopher Peach from Carnegie Asset Management about selling my carbon credits. When I told him I was recording the call he rang off!

497. I must remember that! If Jane rings me back I will tell her I have reported the company to Action Fraud!