By Chris Lang Andrew Skeene and Omari Bowers ran a company called GFI Consultants Ltd. They used the name Global Forestry Investments and claimed to offer an “ethical and financially rewarding investment” in teak plantations in Brazil.
Tag: Boiler rooms
German prosecutors seek arrest of Peter Virdee (AKA “Batman”) for €125 million carbon credit VAT fraud
By Chris Lang Prosecutors in Frankfurt am Main announced this week that they are seeking the arrest of a 46-year-old British businessman charged with running a criminal gang that pocketed €125 million via a carbon credit VAT carousel fraud.
Carbon offsets: Australian airline Qantas makes misleading claims about “empowering rainforest communities”, while making the climate crisis worse
By Chris Lang In October 2019, Andrew Penman, a journalist at The Mirror contacted REDD-Monitor. I’d been in touch with Penman a few times in the past, mainly because he’s one of the few journalists in the UK who has regularly exposed the boiler room scams selling carbon credits as investments to retail investors.
Action Fraud is, er, a fraud
By Chris Lang Action Fraud is “the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime”, according to its website. Victims should report fraud to Action Fraud, and reports are passed on to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.
Radio 4’s Anatomy of a Fraud: Featuring World Commodity Trading, Heritage FA, Eco-Synergies, IGL Labs UK, Diffraction Diamonds DMCC, Diffraction Limited, Citadel Trustees, and World Gemological Institute
By Chris Lang In November 2019, Radio 4’s File on 4 broadcast a programme titled, “The Anatomy of a Fraud”. It documents in detail how 86 year-old Cynthia Tuck was scammed into handing over almost £400,000 in fraudulent investment schemes. And how the authorities and police have utterly failed her.