A property investment scheme endorsed by a Manchester United legend has been ordered into liquidation, after the firm was alleged to have duped investors out of £14 million.
< 
div>A property investment scheme endorsed by a Manchester United legend has been ordered into liquidation, after the firm was alleged to have duped investors out of £14 million.
A UK and a Gibraltar company, both called Green Planet Investment Limited (‘Green Planet’) - which used former Manchester United and England footballer Lee Sharpe to market a property investment scheme in Brazil taking £14 million from investors, have been ordered into liquidation in the High Court in London in the public interest.
Company representatives persuaded nearly 300 investors they were dealing with a large UK registered bank, with salesmen using high pressure sales techniques and exaggerated returns to persuade investors to buy plots of land and off-plan apartments at three sites in Natal, Brazil known as White Sands Country Club, White Sands Towers and Genipabu Beach Club.
Websites used by Green Planet claimed or implied that Green Planet was an ‘expert in the international property market’ and had undertaken significant due diligence in relation to the sites.
The websites used were:
www.gpirewards.com
www.greenplanetinvestment.com and
www.gpigroup.eu
The sites were also marketed to members of the public who had completed a questionnaire in exchange for a free gift which was a glass of champagne at the top of The Gherkin building in London and which turned out to be a hard sell sales seminar.
Some 140 sales people were engaged by Green Planet together with internal agents recruited by advertisements. One such advert claimed:
“Crisis? What crisis? 222% Growth Year on Year. Land, Property, Carbon Credits – Junior Broker, Senior Broker and Trainee Sales Positions.
“£18,000 - £250,000 p.a. (All depends how good you are)”
Green Planet director Mr Brett Jolly told investigators that no building work was ever started by Green Planet. Mr Jolly was also a director of carbon credit company Anglo-Capital Partners Ltd which was recently ordered into liquidation by the court on grounds of public interest (see note 10).
Welcoming the court’s winding up decisions, Company Investigations Supervisor at the Insolvency Service Chris Mayhew said:
“Green Planet Investment was a slick land investment scheme designed to make money only for those with the company and not the 300 investors who were persuaded by false and misleading statements to invest over £14 million into an investment black hole.
“I would urge people to be cautious when contacted out of the blue by cold calling investment sharks earning up to 60 per cent commission whose activities blight peoples’ lives. As ever, if a scheme sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
“The Insolvency Service will not hesitate to take action to shut down unscrupulous companies.”
Leave a comment