Should financial advisors be penalized for recommending the disastrous Harlequin ‘investments’?

Harlequin & David Ames: Knew sales agents were lying to investors.

TailorMade Independent under the microscope…

“In total around 7,000 investors put £300 million into Harlequin, half of this, £150 million was invested on an advised basis.”

Gareth Fatchett, solicitor at Regulatory Legal, who is representing a number of Harlequin investors, said most of the advice he had reviewed was poor and had been motivated by commission. ‘99% of the advice I’ve seen is terrible, inappropriate, commission-driven stuff,’ he said.

It doesn’t get much worse than this, and we wonder when and if criminal fraud charges will be laid against David Ames and his cohorts. So many lives ruined, so many pensions destroyed.

Some new happenings:

FSCS writes to Harlequin promoter TailorMade’s clients

Harlequin investors hit out at TailorMade Group

Serious Fraud Office confirms Harlequin investigation, asks for investor stories

Serious Fraud Office and Essex Police: Harlequin Property

5 March 2013

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO website), together with Essex Police, is looking into complaints in relation to the Harlequin group.  The business activity of the Harlequin group includes the marketing, sale and construction of luxury off-plan property developments in the Caribbean and other resort locations.  If you have invested in Harlequin schemes, we would welcome any information you can give us.

We are particularly interested in hearing from people who invested in the following resorts:

(1) Buccament Bay in St Vincent & the Grenadines;
(2) Merricks in Barbados;
(3) Marquis Estate in St Lucia;
(4) The Hideaway in the Dominican Republic;
(5) Las Canas in the Dominican Republic;
(6) Two Rivers in the Dominican Republic and
(7) Garapua Beach Resort in Brazil.       

Beginning of the end for Harlequin Properties and Dave Ames? Court petitioned to freeze business and personal assets.

UPDATED March 14, 2013: Comments closed and redirected to latest article

Hi folks. After almost 1,500 comments on this story readers are getting a little tired of having to scroll through them all to continue a current discussion. So we’ve closed the comments on this post and redirect you to the most current Harlequin post as of March 14, 2013…

Harlequin Properties stunner! SIPP-Pension investors advised to act immediately

Prior Updates…

URGENT: Barbados Free Press under attack!

Some folks want to discourage discussion about Harlequin

Wednesday, March 13, 2013   1am Bridgetown

Friends, the number of comments on this story is over 1,300 – a new record for Barbados Free Press. Combine those comments with our other news articles about Harlequin and Dave Ames and there are almost 3,000 comments here at BFP.

The Harlequin discussion is carried on primarily by two kinds of people… desperate investors hoping to understand and get their money out somehow, and people who see no wrong by Dave Ames and Harlequin. Some of the second group use different names to post, like Dave Ames’ head of security who got caught trying to infiltrate the discussion without telling his true identity.

Now some people are using techniques to try and block the discussion here at Barbados Free Press. They are inundating us with spam comments trying to sell everything from ice makers to japanese dating sites. Then we have people calling themselves “Yorkiepoo” going for volume to dominate the discussion with garbage comments. This “Yorkiepoo” has to be more than one person because they are here for so many hours. This is way beyond trolling – this must be an organized group trying to stop investors from talking here at BFP.

So who would want to interfere with the Harlequin discussion? (He asked knowingly.)

We’ll do our best to remove asinine and irrelevant comments – but don’t be discouraged. Just talk ya talk and nevermind them others. In response to the attacks, we’ll post this at the top of the blog for a few days so you don’t have to hunt for this very active article. The more they interfere, the more articles we will run and the longer we’ll leave this at the top.

Chickens do come home and we be working on it!

BREAKING UPDATED: Harlequin pays off investors who launched court action!

Saturday March 9, 2013  7:20am Bridgetown

Echo News reports this morning that the Birmingham High Court bid to freeze Harlequin’s and David Ames’ assets was dropped yesterday when a settlement was reached.

Apparently Harlequin paid off six investors represented by Gareth Fatchett of Regulatory Legal, who dropped the court case. Said Fatchett: “Our primary aim was for the return of these investors’ deposits. We now have 20 more investors seeking refunds due to missed completion dates.”

Meanwhile, the H-Hotel construction site in Barbados remains shut down after Harlequin laid off dozens of workers. We haven’t heard anything recently about The Merricks, but we’ll take a drive out of the city on Monday and let folks know.

Echo News: Harlequin Property freezing order bid ends after investors paid out

Here is BFP’s original story first published on March 3, 2013…

Will Dave Ames dodge SFO bracelets?

Financial Services Authority also investigating Harlequin and Ames

A high court action will start in Birmingham on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 against Harlequin Property and David Ames. This, according to investigative journalists Russell Myers and Sharon Churcher of the Mail on Sunday.

“Legal papers will be lodged at the High Court in Birmingham on Tuesday to freeze the assets of Harlequin Property and its directors in an attempt to claw back money for worried investors.”

The court could deliver a double blow to Harlequin and Ames: freezing all business and personal assets. Plus Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs pensions regulator will act – just as Barbados Free Press first reported several months ago.

As we say in Bim, de chickens coming home…  

Serious Fraud Office asked to investigate Harlequin – “3,000 Britons fall victim”

(click photo for full size)

Mail on Sunday visits Merricks Beach Resort in Barbados “Rubbish-strewn field”

“We have been left completely in the dark and fear we’ve lost everything. they haven’t even started building the resort yet.”

Merricks buyer Mrs. Gupta in the Daily Mail article 3,000 Britons fall victim to £250million fantasy villa fiasco

The Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday are publishing a series of investigative news articles about David Ames and the Harlequin Property scandal that saw thousands of people ‘invest’ in what is so obviously a Ponzi pyramid scheme that relies upon finding new ‘investors’ to pay sums promised to earlier ‘investors’.

Journalist Russell Myers and his colleagues Martin Delgado and Sharon Churcher published the first piece in the series on Saturday, February 23, 2013.

Online reports from investors here at Barbados Free Press and elsewhere recently revealed that Harlequin is behind in interest payments to some investors who took out mortgages and loans to fund their Harlequin purchases. Harlequin was supposed to pay the interest to the purchasers’ financial institutions as part of the agreement with the ‘investors’ but it looks like the house of cards is getting very shaky indeed.

The role of the governments of Barbados and other Caribbean nations caught up in the Harlequin scandal is also drawing international attention and must reflect badly upon the involved Caribbean governments and nations.

Barbados and the other nations failed to protect foreign investors and as a result the Harlequin fiasco will taint the region’s other resort and retirement projects for many years. Barbados Free Press has been extensively covering this story because we believe our leaders made very poor decisions about Ames and Harlequin in an environment where Barbados lacks Integrity Legislation, Conflicts of Interest standards and Freedom of Information laws. The lack of accountability for elected and appoint public officials likely played a large role in how Barbados politicians welcomed David Ames and his ‘political donations’…

“Our government gave Ames and Harlequin the benefit of our country’s reputation – and when the Harlequin house of cards falls, it will be the reputation of Barbados that is harmed the most.

Something for our ‘leaders’ to think about the next time that some offshore investor property developer arrives bearing gifts – because no doubt Mr. Ames spread some gifts around freely.”

… from the January 26, 2013 BFP story How Harlequin damaged Barbados reputation

Harlequin’s Buccament Bay Resort hasn’t filed financials in 7 years! Liable to be struck from companies registrar

Nothing filed with Saint Vincent government since 2005

One of the main hotel resorts which received investment from overseas property firm Harlequin Property has not filed accounts for seven years.

Buccament Bay Resort on the Caribbean island of St.Vincent – the flagship investment of the £200m unregulated Harlequin investment scheme – has failed to file any accounts or financial statements with the registrar of companies of the state of Saint Vincent since 2005.

According to documents seen by IFAonline from the deputy registrar of Saint Vincent, the Buccament Bay Resort is now in “default” of its obligations. As a result it is liable to be struck off the island’s companies register.

For more, see IFA Online’s article: No accounts for Harlequin Property resort since 2005

Report: David Ames and Harlequin under investigation for dodgy condo project in Thailand

We wondered why the hit-o-meter was going wild from the UK on our Harlequin articles and then we discovered the reason why: a bunch of Brits purchased condo units in Thailand from Ames / Harlequin

and… and…  Guess what?

Money gone, no condo…. that’s what!

One has to wonder just when this house of cards called Harlequin will finally run out of people willing to trade their cash for a promise that never arrives…

Is Thailand’s Attorney-General Moving Against Dodgy Developers?

Emerald Palace Visited By Police – Sensation

A controversial condominium project in Pattaya linked to a British company, which has taken billions of pounds for property projects, which have never been built, in the Caribbean and Thailand, was yesterday (Wednesday) visited by police and Pattaya Consumer Protection Officers.

Emerald Palace on Pratamnak Hill, Pattaya, initiated by David Ames of the British company ‘Harlequin’, could be described to have been raided but that may be stretching things. The visit was long overdue.

The project is a classic study on how foreign property companies in Thailand can rip off unsuspecting clients.

First of all some buyers, mainly British, but also some Russians, a Canadian and other nationalities, were sold units and were never even allocated one.

Secondly all the remaining buyers found that, when they came to occupy their rooms in the project which came in three years late, they had all been mortgaged to Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank. (One buyer found that his allocated unit was in fact occupied by the mistress of a bank official.)

And thirdly the original sellers, the people who took the cash, quietly removed themselves as directors.

And their company, which actually owns the project is not the company with which the buyers were actually dealing.

Emerald Palace was initiated by David Ames of Harlequin U.K. based in Basildon , Essex. Ames is a formerly bankrupt ex-double glazing salesman.

Read the rest of the story at Andrew Drummond’s blog.

Harlequin’s H Hotel Barbados – Five months of photos: Can you see any progress at all?

(click all photos for large versions)

Where are the workers? Where are the materials? Where are the walls?

Five months of photos at the H Hotel construction site show little, if any, real progress happening at this David Ames Harlequin project. Barbados Free Press first published photos of the worksite dating from February 16, 2012 to March 22, 2012 (BFP’s March 23, 2012 story here). Now, six months later we publish photos taken on July 18, 2012 and we cannot see any progress at all. Some piles of sand, some concrete tiles in the corner, a few internal supports removed – but this isn’t progress. It certainly isn’t what we would expect to see on an active construction project after nearly six months.

Does this look like six months of work on a healthy, vibrant project to you?

These photos will probably cause some Harlequin investors and prospective investors to do a doubletake, and perhaps they should. What work is being done? How much money has been spent on labour and materials in the six past months? Why isn’t this construction site a beehive of activity like every other healthy site you’ve ever seen? There is, however, precedent for this snail like pace by Harlequin…

Unless there’s something we’ve missed, folks who purchased units at Harlequin’s Merricks project six years ago have yet to see one customer unit delivered. Where is all that customer money now?

Perhaps we ordinary people don’t understand how the whole Harlequin project portfolio can support itself without using customer funds from one project to keep other projects going, and by using the funds from new investors to cover existing daily expenses. We don’t understand where the money will come from to build all those sold units at Merricks, because after six years of paying some of the highest sales commissions ever to ‘investment counselors’ who push Harlequin ‘investments’, we think Harlequin is relying on new investors to support the whole scheme.

Harlequin Resorts says change in Barbados planning laws caused one year delay

What change was that?

We can’t find any change in the law…

The Basildon Echo News in the UK recently published a major (four full pages) article about Harlequin Properties and their Caribbean projects. One of the puzzling statements by the Harlequin spokeswoman is that a change in local (Barbados) planning laws caused a one year delay.

We’ve been asking around and have been unable to come up with what change in planning laws Harlequin Properties is talking about. Does anyone have any idea?

There was an issue with setback from the cliff face listed by the critical site ‘Harlecon.net’ but that isn’t a change in the law. We reported on that story in our post Stunning new allegations about Harlequin Resorts: misuse of investors’ funds, auditors refuse to sign off

Speaking of Harlecon.net, where is the website?

As I write this the Harlecon.net website is off the internet. This happened one time a few months ago and it turned out to be a technical problem – but is this another technical problem or did Harlequin’s solicitors find a way to shut them down?

Stay tuned folks… life is always interesting when the little guy takes on big monied companies and governments!

“There are additional challenges involved with carrying out building projects in the Caribbean, where delays are not untypical.

“For instance, in Barbados, a change in local planning laws meant that construction work was interrupted for a year due to circumstances outside our control.

“We have, however, brought in additional resources in order to make up time that was lost.”

Harlequin Property spokeswoman in the Basildon Echo story When will Harlequin’s holiday homes be built? (Formerly titled The 180m holiday homes gamble)

Further Reading

PDF: copy of the Echo News April 3, 2012 article here.

PDF: May 19, 2010 letter from Barbados Prime Minister’s Office to Harlequin… DOC194

HarleCon.net asks a simple question of Harlequin Properties

“Given that Harlequin Properties is not currently making any profits, how can the Caldora Harlequin Income Fund pay investors 6% annually by investing in Harlequin?

Could it be that the 6% is coming from new investors’ capital alone? If so, isn’t that a Ponzi scheme?”

Fire Sale too!

It just keeps getting stranger and stranger over at Halecon.net where we are also told that Harlequin is holding a fire sale on villas. What used to sell for 325,000 pounds is now selling for 195,000 pounds. I’ll bet that makes previous purchasers pass wind!

Full story at Harlecon.net

Is this the brutal truth about Harlequin’s Merricks project in Barbados?

The following as posted at Harlecon.net simply cannot be true. We await comments and information from Harlequin.

“So finally Harlequin have embarked on their eagerly awaited build program. Having sold in excess of 1000 properties in Barbados since 2006 at their much publicised Merricks resort, the plans for the next 12 months are set out below;

A total of three units.”

… from the HarleCON.net story The Current Status of the Projects, Is there really a future?

Harlecon.net averaging 4,500 visitors per day – 1.6 million annually

The Streisand Effect kicks in

My goodness! In only one week the controversial website Harlecon.net has gone from 1,000 visitors a day to over 4,500!

That is 1.6 million visitors a year on an annualized basis.

These numbers go up and down as we at BFP well know. Our best day ever was 44,087 visitors. Annualized that works out to 16 million visitors a year. HA! We wish!

The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose attempt in 2003 to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently generated further publicity.

… Wikipedia

Good for Harlecon.net

But let’s remember some reality: the website had a good week because BFP, Caribbean360.com and others linked to it after Harlequin Hotels and Resorts decided to emulate Barbara Streisand on South Park.

Is that really Harlequin’s own David Ames running amok with Barbara Streisand? The Streisand effect:

Memories, like the corners of my mind

Misty water-colored memories

Of the way we were…

As an aside, we notice that the Harlequin Property entry at Wikipedia seems woefully incomplete and out of date and does not reflect any of the controversy raging in Barbados and elsewhere. Interesting… we wonder how long until someone updates it.

Harlequin shuts down Merricks, Allamanda projects

How many abandoned developments can Barbados take?

by Stolen Sea Eggs

2009: “The Merricks Beach Resort will become one of Barbados’s most luxurious, family-orientated 5 star resorts and will offer state-of-the-art accommodation and amenities including a world class spa. There is currently a shortage of this level of accommodation on the island.”

… from Harlequin Property: The Merricks, Barbados

2011: “Government had offered Harlequin concessions but to date they had not received them, so the development company had to shut the projects down until the concessions became available.”

… from the Nation article 13 workers lose jobs

Where is the bottom?

Word came yesterday that Harlequin Properties shut down construction at the Merricks Resort Development and the Allamanda Beach Hotel – “due to Government’s failure to provide concessions” according to an article in The Nation.

Harlequin says that the Barbados Government promised the company certain unnamed concessions at the start of the projects, but to date the government hasn’t delivered on its promises. That could be. Could it also have something to do with the alleged fraud at Harlequin’s Buccament Bay Resort? Who knows!

These are bad times and they are not getting better tomorrow. Whatever the promised concessions, if they involve revenue output from the Barbados Treasury the vault is empty and no amount of promising or wishing will make it not so. Did we promise roads, power, water and other infrastructure to the project? The money probably isn’t there. It really hasn’t been for decades unless we planned to borrow it and that free ride on our grandchildren is ending according to the IMF and any reality check.

We can’t pay our pensioners and government employees on time, chemists are waiting up to a year to be paid for government prescription plans and at least four buses I know of are sitting idle because the budget isn’t there to cover major engine and transmission work.

Other big projects are in trouble too as the private sector goes into hibernation during the financial chaos. The Four Seasons is nothing but a concrete wasteland, and in another year or so many of the half-done footings will be seriously damaged. There’s nothing more insidiously destructive to unfinished structures than salt-laced water running down exposed rebar and into the concrete for a couple of years. I’m sure that my friend and rebar engineer Grenville Phillips II would agree. 🙂

Barbados: Failed promises to investors and philanthropists

The other side of the story is that over the years Barbados has made it a habit to promise much to foreign investors to entice them to the island, but then fails to pay up. Off the top of my head I can think of a two prime examples, but there are many more…