White Car Crash starting to reveal its secrets.

White Car has crashed - of that there is no doubt. Now in liquidation, not long ago it was raising £800k on Crowdcube with a very upbeat message from founder and CEO Mark Douglas Strachan. 

It was on Crowdcube twice in fact - the final time just a few months ago at the end of 2018 when it took another £200k off investors. The Statement of Affairs shows a deficit of over £2m. Not bad for such a short life. 

We are unearthing the real picture, thanks to shareholders. Large salaries seem to involved, which is always a no no in our book for start ups using others people's cash. 

More to come - if you are an ex shareholder then please do get in touch. This one should go to the FOS. 

Threefold rise in complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Services for Equity Crowdfunding.

 

As we predicted, the 3-5 year time lag for equity crowdfunded business to spend their investment and close down, is now rapidly pushing up the number of complaints to the FOS. Numbers are still small as are the failures but the backlog of zombies waiting in the wings is huge. Like a Fruitbat Rave. 

It is sort of obvious but people have been pretending it isn't. If you fund rubbish businesses run by mediocre business people, with crazy financials, they will not last. Now in 2018/19 we are starting to see the consequences. Our new platform ECF.Buzz, when it launches in July, will have a database of over 1200 funded businesses. You would be amazed at the number of these that are zombies or going nowhere - but that have not closed. Amazed  - not in a good way. Complaints to the FOS only ever come after a business has officially failed. 

So the 3 fold rise from FY 2017/18 to 2018/19 from 26 to 78, is hardly a surprise to us. We'd be pretty certain that this 78 is made up from Ethos Global, Sugru, Emoov, Recruitive Software, Fantoo, Stamplay and Gartenzwerg . We are now helping investors make these complaints and the FOS do not make it easy. Like Parkour, it isnt something you would try more than once, unless you live in Gaza. It actually makes you want to cry. 

We would not be surprised to see this number go up by ten times or more for 2018/19. Pigs are pigs, even dressed up at the bar. At some stage one of them will fart and give the game away. 

How to complain to the FCA

A friend very kindly sent this through and I thought it might be useful for anyone wishing to look at taking action against Crowdcube and or Sugru. I have to say my experiences with Ombudsmen is not good.

I have complained against companies that have ripped me off and have been complained against so here it is.

No matter how much fuss you kick up, and is on the message boards, the FCA won’t do a thing. They are not listening and not even monitoring.

They’re basis for taking action is complaints that are upheld by the Ombudsman http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

If any FCA company gets one or more complaints which are upheld by the Ombudsman, then suddenly the FCA is all over the offender. But under their light touch regulation, they have to identify a problem before they investigate it.

You need to get one of the investors or many of them to complain to Crowdcube. Standard stuff is we were presented misleading information to make our decision on. As such I want my money back.

Crowdcube then has 28 days to investigate and find a way to make the client happy.

If the investor is not happy he can then complain to the ombudsman (the FCA is now aware and monitoring events via the ombudsman).

The ombudsman investigates and has the power to get Crowdcube to refund all the investors money.

These are the proper channels for getting results. The FCA doesn’t listen to anything else