“Notification of Defamatory Statements”: A letter from Ascendo Consulting about Titan Capital Markets, Paradigm Management Consulting, Aaron Wilson and Victor Godwin (AKA Falade)

Capital Alternatives was part of large network of companies that sold investments in hotels, carbon credits, agricultural land, Voice over Internet Protocol, timber, diamonds, gold, platinum, or water bonds.

REDD-Monitor has written about the companies and some of the people behind them on several occasions. In March 2015, the World Policy Institute published a great piece of investigative journalism by Khadija Sharife about the Capital Alternatives network.

The Financial Conduct Authority took Capital Alternatives and several other companies and individuals to court for promoting and operating collective investment schemes. In January 2015, the Court of Appeal in London agreed with the FCA that the schemes were collective investment schemes. “As such they could not be lawfully operated by the defendants,” notes FCA on its website. (The judgement in full is available here.)

Yesterday, REDD-Monitor received a letter from Deji Holloway, in-house Solicitor at Ascendo Consulting Limited. (The letter is posted below, in full.) Holloway wrote on behalf of his clients Titan Capital Markets Limited, Paradigm Management Consulting, Aaron Wilson, and Victor Godwin.

Victor Godwin used to be known as Victor Falade, and he previously worked for Capital Alternatives. I’m taking a wild guess here, but maybe that’s why he’s changed his name.

Holloway’s letter refers to two posts on REDD-Monitor:

• 13 March 2015: On cockroaches and Capital Alternatives
• 22 October 2015: More scams: Sterling and Bond, Voiptel International and Velvet Assets

On 12 January 2015, Victor Falade wrote to REDD-Monitor, explaining that he had never headed IIS International. I posted his message in full. Neither Aaron Wilson nor Victor Falade are listed as directors of IIS Genesis, which traded as IIS International.

(An application to strike off IIS Genesis from the register was lodged with Companies House yesterday. The company’s website expired yesterday.)

One of the comments following the “Cockroaches” post states that “Victor Falade tried to sell me carbon credits while he was working at Capital Alternatives.”

Zoom Info has Falade listed as Marketing and Investor Relations Manager and Senior Investment Broker at Capital Alternatives. And here’s a screenshot from an article in the Mirror, which includes a quotation from Victor Falade, marketing manager at Capital Alternatives:

According to the letter from Ascendo Consulting, any allegations that Aaron Wilson “was pivotal in the scam involving these companies [Sterling and Bond, Voiptel International and Velvet Assets]” are “baseless and libellous”.

Wilson’s name is now pixellated in the comments. Even the comments that linked to Victor Godwin/Falade’s and Aaron Wilson’s LinkedIn pages have been removed.

In any case, Victor Godwin/Falade seems to have gone shy. His LinkedIn profile has disappeared. His profile previously described his current job as “Head of Operations at Titan Capital Markets Limited”.

Wilson points out in his LinkedIn profile, that he is trust-worthy and has high leadership skills:

He’s a director of Titan Capital Markets and Paradigm Consulting. He previously worked as QROPS adviser at deVere Group and as a consultant for Guardian Wealth Management.

Paradigm Management Consulting was incorporated in October 2014. Aaron Wilson is the sole director. The company doesn’t seem to have got round to setting up a website.

Titan Capital Markets was incorporated in March 2015. Aaron Wilson is the sole director. The website was registered (anonymously) in June 2015.

It is perhaps odd that Wilson has different addresses for the two companies in the company registration documents at Companies House (one address in Clapham and one in Wimbledon). Even odder are his two birthdays (one in March 1982 and one in January 1976).

Titan Capital Markets is not registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. But so what? The company has Market Expertise: “Our credentials and training allows [sic] us to deliver precision market analysis tailored for private investors.” One of the company’s clients says, “Titan Capital Markets are truly up to date with the workings of the financial markets.”

And the company’s website looks nothing like a boiler room website:

 
 
 
 
 
F.A.O. Chris Lang
REDD-Monitor
 
BY EMAIL ONLY: [email protected]; [email protected]
 
27 January 2016
 
 
Dear Sir
 
Notification of Defamatory Statements
 
We write on behalf of Tital Capital Markets Limited “Titan” and Paradigm Management Consulting “Paradigm” as well as Mr Aaron Wilson and Victor Godwin (Falade) collectively referred to as “Our Clients”.
 
We refer to the posts made on your website – www.redd-monitor.org – on 13 March 2015 and on the 22 October 2014. The posts occasioned comments defaming Our Clients. The mentioned publications are untrue and defamatory.
 
In the 13 March 2015 post, titled On cockroaches and Capital Alternatives, Victor Godwin was being identified as working for Capital Alternatives and attempting to sell an investment as part of a scam. It is suggested that he is one of the many parties perpetrating these scams.
 
In the post of 22 October 2014 titled More scams: Sterling and Bond, Voiptel International and Velvet Assets it was recently alleged that Mr Wilson was pivotal in the scam involving these companies. These allegations are baseless and libellous.
 
Mr Victor Godwin has never been engaged in any activity that can been deemed as illegal nor is he part of a boiler room scam company.
 
Mr Wilson has no association with Sterling and Bond, Voiptel International or Velvet Assets. While he is a Director of both Tital Capital markets and Paradigm Management, they are both independent companies, legally operating with no association whatsoever to the mentioned companies. This is contrary to the comments which imply that these companies are a spinoff of the mentioned companies set up to run boiler room scams.
 
One comment also ridiculously claims that the property Mr Wilson lives in by Wimbledon Common is paid for by Voiptel. Mr Wilson lives in Clapham and his personal finances were used to purchase the property. He has at no point worked for Voiptel or accepted money from the company.
 
The accusation of being associated with ‘scammers’ adversely effects the reputation of the companies and persons involved. These libellous publications have affected the reputation of Our Clients.
 
You will be aware that as you taken part in the publication of defamatory material and have direct editorial control over the published statements, you are liable for its publication.
 
We, by this letter put you on notice of the existence of these defamatory statements and demand that you take immediate steps and take down the statements that relate to our Clients or suspend access to the comments until they have been removed. This must be done within 24 hours.
 
In vindicating their reputation, they reserve the right to sue you for compensatory damages, in order to remedy their distress and any loss occasioned by the libel. We trust that this will not be necessary in this instance.
 
We look forward to you removing the libellous publications on your site within 24 hours of this letter failing which they will be forced to seek injunctive relief forthwith and seek cost against you on an indemnity basis.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Deji Holloway, In-house Solicitor
 
ASCENDO CONSULTING LIMITED