Skip to content
Menu
REDD-Monitor
  • Start here
  • About REDD-Monitor
  • REDD: An introduction
  • Contact
REDD-Monitor
London Carbon Credit Company

London Carbon Credit Company: Another carbon credit boiler room bites the dust

Posted on 27 May 201318 December 2020
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Email this to someone
email

By Chris Lang

London Carbon Credit Company was exposed as a scam by Daily Mirror journalist Andrew Penman in August 2012. Last month, Penman reported that the company has been wound up in the public interest in the High Court in London.

According to a press release from the Insolvency Service, in the less than two years that the company existed, London Carbon Credit Company managed to collect £1.7 million from investors. The company sold the carbon credits, “at an inflated price with an excessive mark up”. Even if a market did exist to sell voluntary carbon credits, investors would have been unable to do so because London Carbon Credits Company “failed to provide identifiable carbon credit certificates”.

The Insolvency Service’s investigation into the company also found,

  • untrue claims were made regarding carbon credit registration and accreditation
  • investors were unable to track carbon credit investments through online accounts as they’d been led to believe
  • a lack of expertise, training and monitoring of the LCCCL sales staff

Two linked companies have also been shut down (Erumuse was director of both): London Carbon Company Ltd; and Carbon Acquisitions Limited.

David Hill, Investigations Officer at the Insolvency Service, said:

“It was clear that these companies could not provide a shred of evidence to support their exaggerated claims and that anyone who fell for their slick patter was likely to end up losing out.

“The Insolvency Service will take action against and put out of business, companies that set out to rip off honest investors.”

London Carbon Credit Company claimed to be selling carbon credits from (among many other projects) two Clinton Foundation projects (one in Malawi, one in Tanzania).

On its website, the company claimed “that it will soon be able to offer its clients carbon credits from Bill Clinton’s Clinton Climate Initiative, part of the Clinton Foundation.” (As of today, the company’s website is still live – and the claim is still there.) The two Clinton Foundation projects were listed on London Carbon Credits Company’s website in a list of what it called “our voluntary carbon offsetting projects”.

In September 2012, REDD-Monitor contacted the Clinton Foundation to clarify its relationship with London Carbon Credits Company and whether it was possible that the company may have bought carbon credits from Clinton Foundation projects. “This matter is a known fraud,” D. James Baker of the Clinton Foundation replied. “The Clinton Foundation and its Clinton Climate Initiative is not working or otherwise affiliated with the London Carbon Credit Company.”

But Baker did not answer REDD-Monitor’s question about whether London Carbon Credits Company may have bought carbon credits from Clinton Foundation projects. He also declined to answer the following two questions:

  1. Is it possible that London Carbon Credits Company could have bought credits from a Clinton Foundation project from a third party and could therefore legitimately claim to be selling carbon credits from Clinton Foundation projects in Tanzania and Malawi?
  2. Does the Clinton Foundation take any precautions to ensure that its name, reputation and its projects are not used to legitimise the questionable activities of companies like London Carbon Credits Company? If so what, and if not, why not?

Now that London Carbon Credit Company has been shut down, REDD-Monitor looks forward to hearing how the Clinton Foundation plans to avoid becoming the victim of similar scams in the future.
 

Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Email this to someone
email

Related

4 thoughts on “London Carbon Credit Company: Another carbon credit boiler room bites the dust”

  1. Mike says:
    27 May 2013 at 5:41 pm

    Chris. Its obviously good news that the Insolvency Service seem to be quite active in closing down these scams. I don’t know if being closed down in this way bars the Directors from opening up other companies?

    Regardless, it seems they get to keep their ill-gotten gains. What we need as a follow up is more criminal prosecutions, and a straightforward process which allows the investors to sue the directors as a consequence.

  2. Daniel says:
    27 May 2013 at 8:13 pm

    Could not agree more with Mike.

  3. Milan C says:
    28 May 2013 at 5:55 pm

    Damn right! It appears only too easy for these criminals to get away with it. And there appear to loads of them about, judging by the number of blogs on this subject.

    How can investors follow up on criminal prosecutions? Is some sort of class action possible to spread the cost? Agree that a straightforward process is required. Who do we lobby for this?

    We need to get something going here, otherwise these scammers will just keep proliferating…

  4. Mike says:
    28 May 2013 at 9:56 pm

    All I can suggest is make a loud enough noise so that someone takes notice. Write to your MP, the Home Office, Action Fraud, City of London Police and keep at it.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

SUBSCRIBE!

Enter your email address to receive notification of new posts.

Recent themes
Natural Climate Solutions
WWF's conservation scandals
Aviation and offsetting
Conservation Watch

REDDisms

“It is bonkers, on so many levels.”

— Chris Lang, REDD-Monitor, November 2015

Recent Posts

  • Graeme Biggar, Director-General of the UK’s National Economic Crime Centre: “There is not a sufficient deterrent for fraudsters and there is insufficient recourse for victims”
  • Coronavirus notes #7: How the Colombian government is rolling back social and environment safeguards during the pandemic
  • Peru cancels its World Bank FCPF Carbon Fund programme
  • The World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s latest hot air scam: Retroactive credits
  • Some questions for Frithjof Finkbeiner, founder of Plant-for-the-Planet

Recent Comments

  • Arthur Charles Claxton on Graeme Biggar, Director-General of the UK’s National Economic Crime Centre: “There is not a sufficient deterrent for fraudsters and there is insufficient recourse for victims”
  • Chris Lang on Blackmore Bond collapse: Financial Conduct Authority is “responsible for every penny lost”
  • Sam on Blackmore Bond collapse: Financial Conduct Authority is “responsible for every penny lost”
  • barrywarden on Coronavirus notes #7: How the Colombian government is rolling back social and environment safeguards during the pandemic
  • Chris Lang on Why has the Financial Conduct Authority not taken down the website of the clone scam “Good Investment Advisors”?

Issues and Organisations

AB 32 Boiler rooms Bonn California Can REDD save ... ? Carbon accounting Carbon Credits Carbon Offsets CDM Conservation-Watch Conservation International COP21 Paris Deforestation FCPF FERN Financing REDD Forest definition Fossil fuels FPP Friends of the Earth FSC Greenpeace Guest post ICAO Illegal logging Indigenous Peoples Natural Climate Solutions NGO statements Plantations Poznan R-M interview REDD and rights REDD in the news Risk RSPO-Watch Safeguards Sengwer Sustainable Forest Management The Nature Conservancy Ulu Masen UN-REDD UNFCCC World Bank WRM WWF

Countries

Australia Bolivia Brazil Cambodia Cameroon Canada China Colombia Congo Basin region DR Congo Ecuador El Salvador European Union France Germany Guatemala Guyana Honduras India Indonesia Kenya Laos Luxembourg Madagascar Malaysia Mexico Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Republic of Congo Sweden Tanzania Thailand Uganda UK Uncategorized United Arab Emirates USA Vietnam West Papua
©2021 REDD-Monitor | Powered by WordPress and Superb Themes!