Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.
Silent: Ex-footballer Sam Williams is listed as owner of Linc Drinks
E.L. writes: I have received an email offering a Linc Drinks loan bond yielding 12 per cent interest. Is this another case of an investment being too good to be true?
Tony Hetherington replies: Yes! The email you received says that Linc Drinks is raising more than £3 million through its bond issue and that the firm is estimated to be worth £150 million by December.
It claims the beverage business is ‘perfectly positioned to be acquired’ by a top drinks company such as Diageo. Complete rubbish!
What the email did not highlight is that those bonds will be converted into shares in Linc Drinks. But the company has no stock market listing, which means the shares cannot be turned into cash. The message fails to explain the conversion terms or say whether investors have the option to withdraw their money.
It claims it is from an investment firm called Millbak. There is a genuine firm of this name but it is also a victim of Linc Drinks. Its boss Stuart Gibbons was persuaded to become a non-executive director and help it raise funds, only to find his name and that of his firm were misused.
The tricksters behind the email set up a ‘shadow’ version of Millbak with a millbakcapital.com website.
This claimed: ‘Millbak Ltd is owned by Citrus Fund Platform, regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.’
Linc Drinks stated Millbak boss Gibbons ‘is the founder and owner of our regulated client onboarding partners, Citrus Fund Platform, which is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission’.
Impressive claims, so I asked the Jersey regulator if Citrus was allowed to lend its name to the bond offer and did Gibbons really own
Citrus? The FSC offered no response, so I went to Jersey’s capital St Helier and stood outside the FSC’s headquarters with evidence – but the watchdog refused to meet me.
An email said it would ‘review the information’. Since then, the FSC’s only communication has been to ask me to hand over all the documents while refusing to comment or even to say what Citrus was allowed to do under the terms of its registration.
My trip was not entirely wasted as I went into Citrus’s impressive offices. I asked to see Gibbons. The receptionist had no idea who he was and said nobody had heard of him.
So I contacted him in London and told him, according to Linc Drinks, its investors were ‘onboarded’ by Citrus in Jersey. He said: ‘One hundred per cent incorrect.’
He told me he didn’t know ‘anything about’ the millbakcapital website and fumed: ‘This is outrageous.’
So how had he been dragged into any role with Linc Drinks? Gibbons told me: ‘I know Amit Kochhar, he’s my connection to Linc Drinks.’
If the name Kochhar sounds familiar, it is because I reported last Sunday that his cannabis company Cannadex failed to pay out on its loan bonds. Now here he is, with a new bond offering.
Linc Drinks is owned, on paper, by former Aston Villa footballer Sam Williams, but his own office in Mayfair did not seem to recognise Williams’ name and did not call me back. Kochhar was no more talkative.
Gibbons said: ‘I have issued a cease and desist [letter] so hopefully the millbakcapital website and reference to me or Millbak and Citrus will be removed.’
He has also managed to block £30,000 in the investment pipeline and this is being returned.
What will happen to money already invested in Linc Drinks’ mis-sold bonds is unknown.
If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.