Is this the true face of UK equity crowdfunding?

This is Simon Dixon. Simon is a conman. He has conned Richard Branson and Vince Cable and whole host of SMEs and small investors. He has moved out of the UK and now operates from Hong Kong via his platform Bank to the Future.

Simon uses the internet to further his image as a modern day banking guru - he has written several books on the failure of the current banking system and made many appearances on video - mainly his own. The internet is littered with his lies.

Dixon claims to have been an investment banker. The facts are he was a junior trader at KBC Peel for 2 years and then moved to the investment section as a trainee. He left or was fired 4 months later - still a trainee. He would have you believe that in these 4 months as a trainee he was a major force in Peel's Investement Banking section, broking numerous highly successful deals. This is what his site says about him -
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Simon Dixon

Simon Dixon is the co-founder & CEO of Bnk To The Future, author of the book 'Bank to the Future' & co-founder & Fund Manager of Bitcoin Capital. An ex-director of the UK Digital Currency Association & UK CrowdFunding Association, who regularly speaks on the future of finance to governments, businesses, investors and financial institutions. An ex-investment banker that left corporate world in 2006 to launch his first business (angel funded by billionaire Peter Hargreaves) and an advocate of CrowdFunding since raising finance for Bnk To The Future through Equity CrowdFunding on it's own platform. You will find Simon regularly quoted & appearing in much of the major press & media including BBC, FT, CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal to mention a few.

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He claims to have established a very successful company helping students get into banking - Benedix. With this company he also claims to have enlisted the support and investment from Peter Hargreaves. Facts are Benedix was a failure, students took a while but then saw through his empty promises and the Student Room blog is alive with criticism of his company and the way it ripped off students. Hargreaves is indeed an 'investor' in Benedix, he put in £100 of the £450 paid up share capital. Benedix closed after 18 months.

Following this failure and the failure of his 'trading' companies (which never traded) Dixon set up Bank to the Future (BTTF). This was his equity crowdfunding site that was going to take the banking world by storm. Richard Branson said he loved it. As with all things Dixon, it turned out to be a failure and full of lies. At this stage Dixon conned his way into being a director of the new UK Crowd Funding Association - run by Julia Groves, who must be slightly gullible. This gave him credibility and he manged to obtain a quasi FCA licence. Richard Branson still apparently loves it according to the BTTF site  - even though this site is not run by the UK registered BTTF on which Branson commented. It is now an off shore company not registered in the UK that runs it. More lies.

Bank to the Future claimed to raise money for various companies that now appear never to have raised any cash - Datemy, Marcella's, Satoshi Point Ltd Mimex FS Ltd and his own BTTF, being a few. It also took up front up fees from SMEs to deliver pitches on the platform. When in 2014 the FCA licence was withdrawn, the company failed to deliver these pitches but kept the money, only returning some of it to the more persistent pursuers under strict NDAs. All but two of the companies that actually raised money on BTTF have now closed or ceased trading.

In a belated attempt to limit the damage Dixon might cause the UK CFA, he was removed as a director.  But is the true face of equity crowdfunding?