Now you are really taking the P

The Telegraph or Crowdcube PR Dept, have come up with this nonsense from Luke Lang

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/07/12/crowdcube-hits-250m-investment-milestone/

Firstly the claim is that - 

The milestone comes after a number of businesses funded through the site have been sold, leading early investors to pocket huge gains.

'Massive gains'....'a number'.....? They say that Ecar Club made a 3 times gain for investors - we dont think that's true but even if it were, that makes two exits with modest gains and many failures and scandals - not mentioned of course.

Apparently, the Telegraph goes on, 17pc of investors have received a return so far. What the Telegraph fails to explain for some unknown reason, is that much if not most of this 'return' is made up of the CC bond issues - ie interest paid on the bonds, which are of course loans and nothing to do with equity investment. Which is what this article is about. The bonds get no mention anywhere. Neither do the overwhelming number of losses and scandals that Crowdcube have facilitated.

Mind you, as always with Luke, its not what he tells but what he leaves out that counts. He says that 17pc of investors have received a return. Now that implies that 17pc of investors are better off but it doesnt actually say that. You could be one of the 17pc that has received interest from the River Cottage bond for example and still be way down on all of your other CC equity investments. You would still have received a return. He does this regularly. 

Read the article, it is clearly about equity funding. Then do the maths. There is simple no way that the returns to equity investors makes up 17pc of the total number of investors who have thrown money at this platform. We havent run the figures but we'd expect that of that 17pc most if not nearly all is made up from bond holders returns. You decide if that's an honest way to put out your information. 

You have to ask why would one of the UK's most prestigious papers buy this obvious nonsense? Well you can only put it down to stupidity or ignorance or both. Its very damaging for the battle against AltFacts but the truth will out despite Luke's best efforts to conceal it. 

You can smell Crowdcube beginning to get a little desperate. We feel very sorry for the Chinese man who has apparently recently invested £1m in the company. Maybe an issue with the translation?