Mousey
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Post by Mousey on Sept 23, 2023 8:59:33 GMT
LENDY DIRECTOR ‘BORROWED’ £350K FROM CLIENT ACCOUNT, 2016 FCA REPORT REVEALS A “ strictly private and confidential” letter, exclusively seen by the mouseinthecourt, shows that the city regulator was aware, some 32-months before the FCA shut the platform down, that then co-director Tim Alastair Gordon, 44, had “ borrowed” £350k from the company client account. Read more here |
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p2pfan
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Post by p2pfan on Sept 23, 2023 10:19:40 GMT
Well done for digging this up Mousey. £350k is a nice payday, on top of all the other money he lifted from Lendy. The fact that the FCA knew about this 32 months before the shut down of the platform is astounding. Not surprised the least. These scammers take any opportunity possible to put their fingers in the till. They see investors money as their own. Worst of all, the FCA is their closest ally with their level of ineptitude. The Director of The House Crowd, Frazer Fearnhead did similar, as revealed here on Wikipedia and here in The Times: "Companies House documentation has revealed concerns surrounding a c. £390,000 loan taken out by Frazer Fearnhead, “that breached [the firm’s] credit policy which constituted a reportable matter to the FCA and a conflict of interest”. This unauthorised loan by Frazer Fearnhead..." This is always the worry with lending via or to smaller businesses in particular, as one never knows what is ultimately going on. |
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Mousey
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Post by Mousey on Sept 23, 2023 13:24:28 GMT
Thanks, this cache of paperwork took a considerable amount of digging.
It's worth reiterating that the £350k was genuinely borrowed - ie it was returned.
The Fearnhead loan is still one I have to write up - the loan was secured against his own house IIRC and when the administrators delayed providing a redemption figure he sought permission to sue them on the basis he wanted to sell up and move abroad.
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ilmoro
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Post by ilmoro on Sept 23, 2023 15:33:20 GMT
Well done for digging this up Mousey. £350k is a nice payday, on top of all the other money he lifted from Lendy. The fact that the FCA knew about this 32 months before the shut down of the platform is astounding. Not surprised the least. These scammers take any opportunity possible to put their fingers in the till. They see investors money as their own. Worst of all, the FCA is their closest ally with their level of ineptitude. The Director of The House Crowd, Frazer Fearnhead did similar, as revealed here on Wikipedia and here in The Times: "Companies House documentation has revealed concerns surrounding a c. £390,000 loan taken out by Frazer Fearnhead, “that breached [the firm’s] credit policy which constituted a reportable matter to the FCA and a conflict of interest”. This unauthorised loan by Frazer Fearnhead..." This is always the worry with lending via or to smaller businesses in particular, as one never knows what is ultimately going on. Huge element of hindsight though. This is Lendy trying to make sense of complex & vague rules in relation to a situation with a lot of grey, even FCA struggled. It's a question of classification which Lendy got wrong, not convinced there was actually anything malign ... the directors loan seems probably legit.
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p2pfan
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Post by p2pfan on Sept 23, 2023 17:44:00 GMT
Thanks, this cache of paperwork took a considerable amount of digging. It's worth reiterating that the £350k was genuinely borrowed - ie it was returned. The Fearnhead loan is still one I have to write up - the loan was secured against his own house IIRC and when the administrators delayed providing a redemption figure he sought permission to sue them on the basis he wanted to sell up and move abroad. Thank you for your relentless investigations. I can imagine it's incredibly time-consuming. Yes, I sincerely hope you will also investigate Frazer Fearnhead. He is a  bag and narcissist of the worst type. Neither I nor any TheHouseCrowd investor I know has ever got a penny back of our TheHouseCrowd investments all these years later. Complete write-off.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Oct 2, 2023 9:10:14 GMT
Neither I nor any TheHouseCrowd investor I know has ever got a penny back of our TheHouseCrowd investments all these years later. Complete write-off. <sticks paw up> I've been repaid 75% of the money I invested in THC over the years - and that's after a 70% loss on an off-plan flip (HCP117), 20% returns across the ones where the capital is still outstanding. 9 of 14 projects completed and repaid.
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Oct 2, 2023 20:02:36 GMT
Well done for digging this up Mousey. £350k is a nice payday, on top of all the other money he lifted from Lendy. The fact that the FCA knew about this 32 months before the shut down of the platform is astounding. Not surprised the least. These scammers take any opportunity possible to put their fingers in the till. They see investors money as their own. Worst of all, the FCA is their closest ally with their level of ineptitude. The Director of The House Crowd, Frazer Fearnhead did similar, as revealed here on Wikipedia and here in The Times: "Companies House documentation has revealed concerns surrounding a c. £390,000 loan taken out by Frazer Fearnhead, “that breached [the firm’s] credit policy which constituted a reportable matter to the FCA and a conflict of interest”. This unauthorised loan by Frazer Fearnhead..." This is always the worry with lending via or to smaller businesses in particular, as one never knows what is ultimately going on. Huge element of hindsight though. This is Lendy trying to make sense of complex & vague rules in relation to a situation with a lot of grey, even FCA struggled. It's a question of classification which Lendy got wrong, not convinced there was actually anything malign ... the directors loan seems probably legit. From the client account of an FCA regulated consumer facing financial business? I'm no accountant but as someone who put his own money into that client account, I did so believing it was totally ringfenced from such things as directors' loans. Whose side are you on IM ?
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ilmoro
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Post by ilmoro on Oct 2, 2023 22:09:03 GMT
Huge element of hindsight though. This is Lendy trying to make sense of complex & vague rules in relation to a situation with a lot of grey, even FCA struggled. It's a question of classification which Lendy got wrong, not convinced there was actually anything malign ... the directors loan seems probably legit. From the client account of an FCA regulated consumer facing financial business? I'm no accountant but as someone who put his own money into that client account, I did so believing it was totally ringfenced from such things as directors' loans. Whose side are you on IM ? Knowledge & understanding.
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r1200gs
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Post by r1200gs on Oct 3, 2023 16:50:03 GMT
If I took my neighbours car without permission but with the full intention of returning it, does that exempt me from charge of theft? Few will agree with you here, you appear to be on the wrong side.
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ilmoro
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Post by ilmoro on Oct 3, 2023 21:15:09 GMT
If I took my neighbours car without permission but with the full intention of returning it, does that exempt me from charge of theft? Few will agree with you here, you appear to be on the wrong side. But if you took your own rented car that you'd parked on your neighbours drive? The point here isn't the directors loan, it's the erroneous mixing of company money & client money which meant the money was borrowed from the client account rather than the Lendy ops account. The FCA spotted that one, unfortunately it missed elsewhere ie FS.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Oct 5, 2023 9:05:38 GMT
If I took my neighbours car without permission but with the full intention of returning it, does that exempt me from charge of theft? Few will agree with you here, you appear to be on the wrong side. Yes theft is defined as "dishonestly appropriating property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it" actually in this case it would be TWOC ( taking without owners consent)
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keitha
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Post by keitha on Oct 5, 2023 9:10:00 GMT
If I took my neighbours car without permission but with the full intention of returning it, does that exempt me from charge of theft? Few will agree with you here, you appear to be on the wrong side. yes theft is "dishonestly appropriating property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it" specifically in the case of motor vehicles is TWOCing ( Taking Without Owners Consent ) is the offence you would be charged with
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69m
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Post by 69m on Oct 5, 2023 17:35:12 GMT
Mousey, very interesting - well done for digging this up. I wonder if Brooke received a similar letter? According to Lendy's audited year-end accounts, he always owed more to the company than Gordon did.  It also raises some other questions (which we'll probably never know the answers to). For instance, did the company's auditors ever question the source of these loans? Furthermore, did Brooke and Gordon attempt to conceal the true amounts of these loans at year-end, or were they genuinely short-term facilities that fluctuated a lot in value? |
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bag and narcissist of the worst type. Neither I nor any TheHouseCrowd investor I know has ever got a penny back of our TheHouseCrowd investments all these years later. Complete write-off.
