3,000 Britons fall victim to £250million fantasy villa fiasco:

[JohnyCanuck]

Holiday home scheme promoted by (tennis star) Pat Cash.

Sorta looks like another Ponzi scheme has run its course and reached the end of the road. /JC

Up to 3,000 Britons have poured up to £250?million of their savings into a controversial Caribbean property scheme which is facing the threat of legal action.

Several investors say they fear financial calamity after being persuaded by pension advisers to put large sums into projects run by Essex-based Harlequin Property. It has promised to build 6,000 luxury villas in St Lucia, St Vincent, Barbados and the Dominican Republic. So far only 300 have been constructed.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued an ‘alert’ about the company and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been asked to investigate.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283474/3-000-Britons-fall-victim-250million-fantasy-villa-fiasco-Holiday-home-scheme-promoted-Pat-Cash-investigated-fraud-police.html#ixzz2LpS95OwB

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

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.

http://barbadosfreepress.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/serious-fraud-office-asked-to-investigate-harlequin-3000-britons-fall-victim/

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Someone needs to take a look at those pension advisers, me thinks.