By Chris Lang
In December 2014, three men were sentenced in Southwark Crown Court in the UK to a total of 28 years for their involvement in a £23 million biofuel investment fraud. While handing down the sentence, judge Martin Beddoe described the fraud as a “thickening quagmire of dishonesty”.
The sentences followed an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into Sustainable Growth Group and its subsidiaries Sustainable AgroEnergy plc and Sustainable Wealth (UK) Investments Ltd.
Sustainable AgroEnergy sold investment products based on “green oil” jatropha plantations in Cambodia. REDD-Monitor wrote about the unravelling of Sustainable AgroEnergy‘s jatropha investment scheme in March 2014.
The Serious Fraud Office press release about the sentence explains that,
The green biofuel products were sold to UK investors who invested primarily via self-invested pension plans (SIPPs). These investors were deliberately misled into believing that SAE owned land in Cambodia; that the land was planted with Jatropha trees, and that there was an insurance policy in place to protect investors if the crops failed.
The sentences were as follows:
- Gary Lloyd West, of Hertfordshire, former Director and Chief Commercial Officer of SAE was sentenced to a total of 13 years’ imprisonment.
- James Brunel Whale, of Sussex, former Director, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of SGG was sentenced to a total of 9 years’ imprisonment.
- Stuart John Stone, of Shropshire, Director of SJ Stone Ltd, a sales agent of unregulated pension and investment products was sentenced to a total of 6 years’ imprisonment.
By 2011, Sustainable AgroEnergy’s farming programme was “a shambles”
According to a report of the case on Fulcrum Chambers’ website, the directors of Sustainable Growth Group were initially involved in “an honest attempt to sell pensions investment products based on biofuel farming projects”.
I’m not convinced that’s true. A company called Viceroy Invest was selling investments in Sustainable Growth Group’s jatropha plantations. In this 2009 brochure the company was offering too-good-to-be-true returns of “up to 93% a year”. That doesn’t sound much like “an honest attempt to sell pensions investment products” to me.
Fulcrum Chambers’ report of the case states that, by 2011 Sustainable Growth Group had “run into difficulties”. The defence admitted that its farming programme was “a shambles”. The judge found that by the end of July 2011, Gary West and James Whale “could have had no honest belief that the company was viable.”
Yet they continued selling investment products and lied to investors about the company’s finances.
They managed to get help from a member of the House of Lords. In May 2011, Lord Laird of Artigarvan hosted a promotion for Sustainable Growth Group in the House of Lords. Here’s a photograph of Lord Laird shaking hands with James Whale. Fryett is standing next to Whale.
Conservation Central Network and Sustainable Growth Group
In March 2011, Sustainable Growth Group appears in a brochure put out by an Adelaide-based outfit then called Carbon Conservation Network, now renamed as Conservation Central Network. REDD-Monitor wrote about the company, and its investment scheme that looks remarkably like a pyramid scam, in February 2015.
Carbon Conservation Network’s 2011 brochure includes a photograph of CCN’s office in Adelaide. That’s it on the left, with the big sign announcing CCN to the world (or at least to passersby Greenhill Road). And on the right is a photograph from Greenhill Executive’s website. Greenhill Executive offers a variety of serviced and virtual offices.
Such trivialities don’t worry the likes of Lord Laird. In May 2012, he held another event in the House of Lords “to showcase the rainforest conservation projects that CCN sponsor,” according to Conservation Central Network. Here’s Lord Laird giving a speech during the meal, with CCN’s co-founder Erminio Kotlar looking on:
The brochure announces a partnership between CCN and Sustainable Growth Group:
Pretty impressive. 10 million carbon credits, with a projected sale value of €100 million. And all from a company whose directors, only a few months later, “could have had no honest belief that the company was viable.”
In March 2013, Gregg Fryett, Sustainable AgroEnergy’s director, was arrested in Cambodia and has been held in Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar Prison since then. Fryett denies the fraud allegations and claims that he was framed.
In November 2014, Gregg Fryett wrote a statement about the relationship between Sustainable Growth Group and Conservation Central Network. Someone called “Natalia” posted it on Scribd, where it’s been viewed more than 105,000 times. Below that is CCN’s response (available in full here). CCN accuses journalist Antonio Papaleo of forging the document. I think it’s safe to say that the quagmire continues to thicken.
Gregg Fryett, Forged Statement of Untruth.
- Gregg Fryett is currently in a Cambodian jail for fraud and is wanted in the UK for Fraud as well as the Philippines. His directors of one of his companies are now serving heavy 10+ year sentences for the fraud they committed. Fryett being in a Cambodian jail is yet to be convicted in the UK, unlike his fellow ex directors, James Whale and co.
- Gregg Fryett offered to fund CCN to set up and sales and marketing division for his SGG company. A sum of $100,000 was agreed to with and extortionate 50% interest rate over 1 year. He agreed to 4 x $25,000 payments over 3 months He deliberately withheld the money and took over 6 months to pay over the money. His stalling tactics were a ruse to give him time to try various ways to gain control of CCN.
- Despite Fryett’s underhanded actions he tried on CCN and the substantial losses he caused, it was decided not withhold payment or sue him and the $100,000 was paid back. It was our view he had no right to any interest because of his actions and substantial losses incurred. He was lucky we didn’t keep the $100,000 and sue him for specific performance on supply.
- Greg Fryett SGG’s people forged Agus Sari signature on supply agreements and promissory notes for carbon credits along with his employee Brain McEwen and James Whale.
- CCN was forced to try and finish the projects in the Philippines which it had invested in but Fryett interfered and the project was put on hold. The land owners approached CCN to help them try and finish the project because Fryett had left them without money to develop the project. CCN was put in a position where it had to incur the addition expense of obtaining Carbon Credits from Peru to cover its obligations that Fryett failed to cover.
- CCN has never made any allegations in relation to Gregg Fryett to any authorities at any time because it did not want to become entangled in any of that sort drama, CCN management did not have the time or resources to get involved with government departments in the UK on a witch hunt.
- The statement of untruth is not signed by Gregg Fryett and his signature on the document is clearly copied and pasted from note paper because Greg Fryett never signed off on such a document why ? Antonio never paid to Fryett the promised payment / bribe and press exposure to help Fryetts current efforts to get out of jail in Cambodia.
- Antonio Papaleo pieced together this forged unauthorised statement and is now complicit in Fero’s criminal defamation actions against CCN.
What will Mr. Scott and Kotlar tell us now ? I m looking fotward to a new fairytale :) !!!
Great article from Chris Lang uncovering dirty unacceptable practices from Kotlar and Scott. They still reassuring investors they looking forward in 2015…in misleading and skinning of all innocent people!
Beware those fraudsters as their previous trading history is very shadow!
CCN is a MEGASCAM which I have reported to Australian and Hongkong police. My last email sent the South Australia Crime Stoppers (and HK police and ASIC) is below and point to another big scam perpetrated by CCN, Erminio Kotlar and Sabine Raabe.
Dear Crime Stoppers,
we got now a new proof CCN, Erminio Kotlar and Sabine Raabe from London, UK had scammed Slovak and Czech CCN members in Bratislava and Prag in 04/2014. All CCN members in 04/2014 received an email from CCN which included this presentation/facts about two CCN REDD projects in Colombia: http://www.ie-we.com/ccn/asic/ccn_funcadec_projects.pdf. CCN claimed Zaragoza REDD project is in status: PDD submission to VCS and Choco project is in status PIN and PDD in place. Therefore Tony Papaleo asked Verified Carbon Standard (VCS, Washington DC, http://www.v-c-s.org/) whether is this true. You can see the VCS answer below. CCN presentations in Bratislava, Slovakia and Prag, Czech republic were recorded as you could see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt_9P_WpQdc&feature=youtu.be&t=10m15s. Campbell Scott’s verdicts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt_9P_WpQdc&feature=youtu.be&t=5m36s are also very „interesting“ (put money in and enjoy the profits !?!?!).
Please look at this web page: http://antoniopapaleo.pressfolios.com/ (click on STORIES)
CC: Hong Kong Police, ASIC (Mrs Heather Cooper), Tony Papaleo and representants of victims
Thanks
Regards
Fero Gachulinec and cca 500 victims of this scam
On 26/02/2015 23:34, Elizabeth Silverstein wrote:
Hello Antonio,
Thank you for contacting us with your question. As you noted on the phone, neither the Zaragoza REDD nor the Choco projects are listed on the VCS project database or on the VCS project pipeline. I can confirm that there are currently no projects using either of those names that are registered with the VCS or listed on our pipeline. Only projects listed as registered on the VCS database may claim to be VCS projects.
I hope this helps to answer your question. Please do not hesitate to send us any additional questions you may have.
Best regards,
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Silverstein, M.P.Aff.| Program Officer | Verified Carbon Standard | Office: 202-470-5655 | http://www.v-c-s.org
Stay in touch with VCS!
Interesting recent article featuring Sustainable AgroEnergy in New Model Advisor, here:
Berkeley Burke loses legal appeal against FOS decision
Here’s an extract from the judgement:
Very interesting information and statements.
I am Gregg Fryett. My email is [email protected] and I very much welcome the opportunity to put the record straight.
The Cambodian Government through the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice with the National Police Commissioner and the Provincial Authorities including the Governor who wrote to the Prime Minister in 2012 confirmed in Government Ministerial Records that:
1. All of our land contracts were in fact according to law and enforceable. The value of this land now exceeds the investment amounts.
2. We were falsely prosecuted by a corrupt judge and his colleagues. This evidence was supplied to the Appeal Court and actually all the courts including the UK FCO and SFO and of course, because they got it so so wrong, they refuse to make good all the investors.
With regard to the SFO, the Cambodian Government itself confirms the corruption and false prosecution and that the land and its contracts existed. The SFO lied. The Receiver has a crop audit or any form of inspection of the agriculture? Of course not. He would then have to provide that to a UK Court.
The initial Cambodian Arrest by they way, this was after I approached the court to make a complaint about the lost investment, a job the Receiver was supposed to do. I was then allowed to leave Cambodia as the victim of a land scam. I wrote to the Receiver and SFO and stated they should go and collect the assets. This was in January 2013.
In February 2013, right over the weekend of the Kind’s Funeral, the Receiver went to Cambodia and the ACU shook him down. They ultimately wanted to steal the land and equipment it transpired. They later emailed me and confirmed that the Receiver had ‘told them everything!”. Of course, he claimed he told them nothing.
Next month I was asked to return to Cambodia to finalize the land transfer which the land seller had already provided in writing to the UK court and SFO. I was assured safe passage but of course this was a ruse. I was arrested and illegally imprisoned by Judge Ang Mealtey. The Provincial Governor wrote to the Prime Minister HUN SEN informing him about this corruption. #1277 dated July 5th 2012. Hun Sen annotated the document and passed it to the ACU to prosecute the Judge and his colleagues BUT they were friends. Welcome to Corruption Central that is Cambodia.
This is where it gets even more interesting…. I was entrapped and then imprisoned. We, all of a sudden, had Money laundering Charges from the UK. The Receiver had done a great job of burying us. The SFO with the FCO also entered the fray and laid false claims and allegations. The court papers in Cambodia detail all of the UK court information. This is of course not relevant to a Cambodian Prosecution. It is absolutely illegal disclosure by the SFO.
Why would the SFO and Receiver have me imprisoned in Cambodia when they have all the evidence they need to bury me in the UK Courts?
Because they didn’t have any evidence of any fraud, any miss selling – only one agent was prosecuted and he was paying bribes to a director of one of the companies without anyone else knowing. Theses two were immensely stupid.
If we take a look at the UK Appeal for the two directors, they were accused of fraudulent trading. They had NO EVIDENCE to provide to the UK court because the Receiver had closed the company, ring fenced the Property Trustee and been a party to my illegal prosecution in Cambodia all to stop this evidence. It is all in the Cambodian Court Documents.
So, not one UK or SAE investor need have lost a penny but for the SFO and Receiver perverting the course of justice. Please sue me for this SFO and Receiver, show your hand….. we very much welcome this opportunity to see you in court. The SFO and Receiver have been noticed not to destroy evidence. We will be taking legal action in due course.
93% returns. Does the author of this article not read? Jatropha Trees can produce thousands of seeds. The genetics is a core cultivation trait essential to commercial outcomes along with soils, nutrients and cultivation processes. One seed is worth 4 cents. One Nursery Tree was $15. All very reasonable. The seeds were generated by the Mother Trees from our nursery operations in Thailand so we knew the Nursery Tree Genetics would be optimized. We took as many as 16,000 seeds per tree and seed selected them down to 350 seeds. 350 seeds x 4 cents is $14. 93%. Is this so ridiculous now? Who pays the 4 cents? The Oil program or seed sales.
Lets talk oil program. We could drill for oil. A linear business where only people around the pipeline get rich. Worse they are digging up very deep carbon and burning this for energy. This causes deep ground carbon to be thrown out into the atmosphere where it causes climate change. The jatropha alternative was a broad base of cultivation (farmers) spreading the economic benefit to rural communities, very low environmental risk to energy production and then on to the energy industry. BP and D1 oils thought it was a great idea also, They invested $130m into that venture, we hired some of the staff from that venture to help us and they ended up trying to steal our genetics which were vastly superior to the BP/D1 oils genetics. Newcastle University analysis showed 46% oil!
Does that all sound nonsensical?
CNN – wow, these are some despicable people. My statement I wrote is correct as I wrote it. I stand by these words and I am happy to testify as such. I may have some evidence to help with this, the UK receiver will definitely have these records.
I informed CNN to have their funds professionally managed. They bought properties and basically put two fingers up to ASIC and a number of other regulators it appears. I have mentioned to one or two people that I will help in any way I can with this recovery for victims, that remains an open offer. We only ever got our investment capital back by threatening CNN. It was an investment I was pushed into which on the surface looked fine and dandy but we had no management or control whatsoever, they were only supposed to pre-purchase carbon credits and sell them on. They paid for not one Carbon Credit from us ever. We never benefited from one single dollar from the work and expertise we provided to them or the money they raised.
Erminio Kotlar was prolific in his attacks upon me in the public arena. What is that saying about the most noisy usually having the most to hide?
My email is above. Feel free to contact me. Hong Kong Police and ASIC and European Police. Absolutely my pleasure to assist in any way I can.
Lord Laird. Yes, he was/is a peach. I was introduced to Lord Laird around the same time as the Lords Dinner which was for CNN primarily but for which I was magnanimously allowed to pick up much of the tab. I was petitioned to take him on in an advisory Chairman Role for a few thousand a month. When i asked exactly what I would get for this stipend, no one could give me an answer that made any sense. I therefore declined to appoint him or pay him. He did have another sting in the tail in that I ended up lending money to a friend of his whom he referred for which commercial terms were signed and agreed and of course he reneged and hid the equipment which was security to the loan.
So, Conclusion….
I am now pursuing legal action in the UK and Cambodia for full recovery of our investments based on the evidence provided by the Cambodian Government themselves. I strongly recommend that no one of sane mind invests or travels to Cambodia until there is a complete change of the legal system. It is simply so dangerous, so out of control and so unaccountable that to even contemplate even tourism is to elevate risk to unacceptable levels. Sorry but my experiences and the evidence prove this unequivocally.
I am lining up action against the UK FCO who were a party to my false imprisonment and torture and the loss of 2000 investors money. The Foreign Affairs Committee are undertaking an inquiry into the ineffective actions of the FCO in regard to hostage situations. I submitted evidence to the inquiry of my case and 19 others including 3 British Citizens who died in custody or because of custody in Cambodia and for whom all, their convictions were corruption and hostage/ransom based, not concurrent to any criminal acts. I am happy to supply this information to third parties or you can go to Facebook and FCDOHostages where I shall be posting this evidence. The FAC evidence is already posted and can be reached here https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/78/foreign-affairs-committee/news/165268/new-inquiry-into-the-handling-of-state-level-hostage-situations-announced-by-foreign-affairs-committee/
More information about my case and events in Cambodia can be found here https://m.facebook.com/kidnappedincambodia/?locale2=ne_NP
You are welcome to contact me as required, I am working through the legal abuses as fast as I can….It has been a somewhat challenging 10 years.
Warmest regards
Gregg