A company called Rothstein Capital & Partners is contacting people who have been scammed into buying carbon credits or other near-worthless investments. The company claims that it can offer an exit strategy. Of course, Rothstein Capital & Partners wants an advance fee. And of course, it’s a scam.
When you’ve been scammed, your name goes on a suckers list. These lists are traded between boiler room companies. Recovery room scammers prey on the unfortunate reality that when you’ve been scammed you are more vulnerable to being scammed again.
Posing as reputable companies, they contact you with an offer of recovering the money that you’ve lost. They ask for an advance fee. When the money disappears (again) people are reluctant to report the scam because they are embarrassed to admit that they have been scammed again.
Here are some of the tell-tale signs that Rothstein Capital & Partners is running a recovery room scam:
- The company is just over one year old: Rothstein Capital & Partners was registered in the UK in January 2014. The company’s sole director is Charles Rothstein. The company has not yet lodged any annual accounts or annual returns with Companies House.
- The office address: Rothstein Capital & Partners shares its address in the City of London with 56 other companies. A company called BE Offices offers virtual offices at this address.
- The website is only six months old and was registered anonymously: The company’s website was registered in September 2014. It is registered to a P.O. Box number in Panama.
- The company is not registered by the Financial Conduct Authority: This should be enough to persuade anyone not to hand over their money.
- The website gives no information: The company’s website tells us nothing about Charles Rothstein, or about his company. The company’s explanation of what it does even sounds like a recovery room scam:
We take pride in working alongside our specially selected partners in purchasing the unwanted assets of their clients which would be considerably hard to sell on a retail basis.
- The website is grammatically incompetent: This sentence should be enough to persuade anyone not to hand over their money:
Historically, we have been employed to acquire large volumes of rare collections, benefiting buyers of whom would possibly had no other options or places to look.
- This isn’t the company’s only recovery room scam: Jim Budd reports on his Investdrinks blog that Rothstein Capital & Partners has been contacting clients of European Fine Wines, a company that went into liquidation in June 2014.
Wine Owners reports that Rothstein Capital & Partners contacted one of their members, claiming to be working with the liquidator to assist former clients of European Fine Wines recover their losses. She was offered a very good price, but there was a problem with the log number and her wine had to be shipped from Bordeaux. She would have to pay an advance fee of £1,000 – supposedly insurance to cover the shipping risks.
In October 2014, Mark Newman commented on REDD-Monitor about Rothstein Capital & Partners. The company offered him an exit strategy and explained that,
“Clients with holdings in VER, EUA, REDD and VCS units will need to undergo a full corporate re-diversion to secure exit. This will involve change of format, acting agent and project validity.”
None of which makes any sense. But that’s not the point. The details of what the company says and what it offers are pretty much irrelevant. The only purpose of the story is to extract an advance fee.
If Rothstein Capital & Partners (or any other company offering an exit strategy for an advance fee) contacts you out of the blue, REDD-Monitor’s advice is to report them them Action Fraud:
Beware almost convincing Scam. Green Oaks Financial is a clone of a legitimate Cambridge co, The have a web site which shows the same address as the real company and the claim the same FCA regulation No. I was nearly taken in as they were going to sell my carbon credits and my rare earth metals and only invoice me commission after the sale. I have informed the FCA who now have a warning on their site
I, too, was approached by Rothstein. I’m thinking of changing my telephone number to avoid these scam calls (for a while, at least). Now they have got my mobile number there is no peace.
i have been scammed by Rothstein they are more than scumbags how they are still going is beyond me when and if you get a call from rothstein tell than to f*** off they should all be put away murdock and his crew
@bob robin – I’m sorry to hear about this, but thanks for your comment. Please report Rothstein Capital Partners to Action Fraud.
thanks for the reply i have reported rothstein to action fraud i hope more people do and i hope they put the lot away bunch of scumbags
Recovery room scam? I have recently been contacted (cold called) by an Austrian company named LACKNER KURT offering to take my Carbon Credits off my hands and giving me a good profit. A Chinese Company are anxious to buy them. Of course I am expected to put something up front a minimum of £3000 which goes into a “surety bond” which is held in a Chinese Bank and then returned to me. LK only take a smallish % as commission. Anyone else been contacted by these people? Any views?
Been cold called 3 times by Lackner Kurt saying there are Chinese buyers for my non-existent REMEX derived rare earths. Awaiting further developments.
@robich and GoG – Please see the discussion about Lackner Kurt here.