Imperial Consolidated

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    Imperial Consolidated creditors can expect 11 cents in dollar

    Unsecured creditors of one of the main companies within the Imperial Consolidated Group have been told to expect a dividend of approximately 11 cents in the dollar. That is the "estimated outcome" for parties owed money by Imperial Consolidated Financiers Ltd. as forecast by the firm's administrators, Philip Lyon and Steve Woods, of Mazars Neville Russell.

    Insider Talking: July 31, 2003

    Police in Bermuda have carried out raids on several offices on the island, including those of law firm Appleby Spurling and Kempe, looking for documents as part of a criminal investigation, reported The Royal Gazette newspaper on July 22, 2003; A Canadian Alliance MP wants Canada to investigate the possibility of annexing the idyllic Turks and Caicos Islands, reported the National Post, of Canada, on July 15, 2003; A court in Zurich, Switzerland, has sentenced Greek businessman Panagiotis A. Papadakis to 23 months and 16 days in prison for fraud, according to a newsletter published by the International Chamber of Commerce's Commercial Crimes Bureau; Former janitor John Wayne Zidar, 60, who orchestrated a Ponzi scheme that took in approximately $74 million from about 3,200 people in the United States and elsewhere, including Bermuda, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on July 28, 2003 at the U. S. District Court for the District of Western Washington; Mazars Neville Russell, the administrators of the Imperial Consolidated Group, have recovered relatively few assets for distribution to its clients and creditors, if a recent filing with Companies House for England & Wales is anything to go by; Just 15 months after they were formed, voluntary applications have been made to strike off two companies that were set up by former senior officers of the Imperial Consolidated Group to carry on in business as IC was collapsing after defrauding investors of $345 million; and A publicly-traded firm in the United States has written off its entire $1 million investment with Omnicorp Bank, which was closed down by regulators in St. Vincent last year but only after the bank's depositors were asked to convert their CDs to preferred shares in a highly dubious U. S.-registered, Canadian-based firm called Solara Ventures.

    Ex-Imperial Consolidated attorney struck off in UK

    An attorney has been struck off by the Law Society in the United Kingdom, primarily for helping the Imperial Consolidated Group defraud the public. Michael John Harvey was struck off on July 2, 2003 following a hearing on July 1-2 before a professional disciplinary tribunal, the Law Society confirmed to OffshoreAlert.

    Insider Talking: June 30, 2003

    The Bank of Bermuda sacked 14 staff in June after catching them distributing pornographic e-mails, reported The Royal Gazette newspaper; Imperial Consolidated co-founders Jared Brook and Lincoln Fraser are close to being arrested by the Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom, according to the June 12, 2003 edition of 'Private Eye', a British satirical magazine; Meanwhile, UK-registered financial services firm Kingsbridge Holdings PLC has partly blamed its "very disappointing" loss of £1.397 million (US$2.3 million) for the six months ended February 28, 2003 on Imperial Consolidated; While owners of web-sites in the United States are legally protected against libel actions from people who believe they have been defamed on Internet message boards, that does not appear to be the case in the Cayman Islands; In the United States, where there is a tax protester, there is usually an illegal offshore investment scheme not far behind and Eddie Ray Kahn, who lives in Sorrento, Florida, is no exception; The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission issued a warning about Richmont Investments Inc. on April 10, 2003; Former Bank of Bermuda (Cayman) officer Marc Vanmarsenille, who lost his job in the aftermath of the Cash 4 Titles fiasco, is a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed at the Turks & Caicos Islands Supreme Court on November 7, 2002; At the same court, a lawsuit has been filed against TCI-registered Sealand Housing Corporation in an attempt to collect on a judgment awarded in the UK High Court; Two businessmen previously exposed in OffshoreAlert for their involvement in the sale and operation of sham offshore credit unions involving Nevis, Panama and the United States have each been sentenced to 25 years in prison, ten of which is suspended, for defrauding a 101-year-old woman out of her life savings; and If creditors of Bahamas-based Suisse Security Bank & Trust were wondering why the winding-up of the bank is taking so long, they should read the prelude to the recently-released written judgment by Bahamas Supreme Court Justice Austin Davis in which he turned down the bank's attempt to regain its banking license, which was suspended on March 5, 2001 and revoked on April 2, 2001.

    Imperial Consolidated founder ordered to turn over bank records

    A U.K. High Court judge today ordered bankrupt British businessman Lincoln Julian Fraser to turn over his bank records to the administrator of his failed Imperial Consolidated Group, which went bust in June, 2002 with liabilities of approximately $345 million.He

    Imperial Consolidated founders declared bankrupt

    Lincoln Julian Fraser and Jared Bentley Brook, co-founders of the Imperial Consolidated Group, were both declared bankrupt at Grimsby County Court, England on May 2, 2003. It is the second bankruptcy in just over seven years for Fraser at the age of just 31-years-old.

    Insider Talking: March 31, 2003

    A United States law firm accused of lining its own pockets by cutting an illegal deal with a telemarketing fraudster to the detriment of one of its clients - an asset recovery firm - has been ordered by a court to produce all of its financial statements and tax returns from 2000 to the present; Three men who were accused of kidnapping an offshore investment fraudster in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 2001 have pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of common assault; David Ballantyne, who became one of the most despised people in the Cayman Islands, finally agreed to resign as Attorney General, effective March 15, 2003, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Euro Bank money laundering trial; A letter to the editor that was published in the Caymanian Compass on February 26, 2003 spoke volumes for the level of animosity among locals towards the people widely believed to be primarily responsible for the Euro Bank fiasco, which is likely to cost Cayman's taxpayers many millions of dollars in legal fees, costs and damages; Bermuda company director Paul Lemmon has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States; A dispute involving two offshore entities and two Canadian firms has arisen over the rights to the domain name 'poker.com'; Thirteen days after OffshoreAlert's article last month about a lawsuit filed at federal court in Miami by Florida-registered Growth Fund Partnership Inc. against Nevis-registered Condor Insurance Ltd., both of whose operations raise red flags, the action was dismissed with prejudice; Three firms have been ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars of restitution for their part in a massive investment fraud; Florida-based crook Rommy Kriplani, who specializes in ripping off residents of Third World countries by taking their money on the promise of jobs in the United States that never materialize, is at it again, once more in partnership with his favorite law firm of Spiegel & Utrera, of Coral Gables, Florida; and James Michael Dwyer, who until last year owned the White Sands Hotel in Bermuda, was criminally indicted for bank fraud on March 4, 2003 in his native New Jersey.

    Bankruptcy petitions filed against Imperial Consolidated founders

    Bankruptcy petitions have been filed against Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook, co-founders of the fraudulently-operated Imperial Consolidated Group, which collapsed owing more than $300 million. The petitions were filed at Grimsby County Court, England on March 7, 2003 and are scheduled to be heard on May 2, 2003, according to a court spokesperson.

    Praise the Lord! (Or should that be Mammon?)

    A man whose public relations firm published several statements on behalf of the Imperial Consolidated Group that turned out to be false and now represents a spin-off firm peddling a similarly fraudulent investment product actually fancies himself as a moral-minded man of God. George Pitcher is training to become a religious minister in the UK who will, inter alia, advise journalists on morality and ethics, reported The Independent newspaper on March 25, 2003.

    Hunt for Imperial Consolidated assets moves to the United States

    The former Managing Director of Imperial Consolidated's offshore bank tried to remove its $500,000 security deposit with MasterCard International four months AFTER the bank went into provisional liquidation. That is an allegation contained in a petition filed at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on February 7, 2003 by Marcus Wide, Provisional Liquidator of Imperium Bank.

    Whatever you do, don’t mention the $300 million fraud

    OffshoreAlert has obtained details of yet another unregistered securities offering being carried out by former officers of the Imperial Consolidated Group, including ex-British policeman Gary Alexander Lyons. Anglo Canadian Securities Inc., which is based in Canada and the UK, is raising funds for a personal injury litigation product that is virtually identical to one previously offered by Imperial.

    Imperium Bank Ltd.: Section 304 Petition

    Section 304 Petition for Assistance in Insolvency Proceedings in Grenada by Marcus Wide, as the Foreign Representative of Imperium Bank Ltd., at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

    Imperial Consolidated Ltd.: Section 304 Petition (England)

    Section 304 Petition for Assistance in Insolvency Proceedings in the United Kingdom by Philip Lyon and Alistair Wood, as the Foreign Representatives of Imperial Consolidated Ltd., a.k.a. Imperial Consolidated Group Plc and Imperial Consolidated Plc, at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

    Insider Talking: January 31, 2003

    In all of the hullabaloo surrounding the collapse of the Euro Bank trial in Cayman after the judge determined that the island's senior anti-money laundering officer, Brian Gibbs, had lied and destroyed evidence, it was easy to overlook a snippet in Gibbs' November 26, 2002 witness statement about Johnny Johnson; An order for the extradition of offshore banker William Cooper from Antigua to face a money laundering indictment in the United States was thrown out by a judge in Antigua on January 13, 2003 because the application was made before an extradition treaty between the two countries was ratified and before money laundering was criminalized on the Caribbean island; Edouardos Stamatiou, whose Argentina-based firm Tucuman Land Holdings Ltd. received £151 million ($237 million) of the $345 million defrauded from clients of the Imperial Consolidated Group and won't give it back, is a former principal of The Cayman Financial Brokerage House, which … surprise, surprise … was forcibly closed down in October, 1999; Another post-Imperial Consolidated scam, known as Property International, is in financial trouble after not very long in business; And, to conclude our segment on Imperial Consolidated, we have been passed the name of yet another company which allegedly brokered client funds into the fraudulently-operated group - Lighthouse Strategies; Canadian national David Voth has been fined CDN$12,000 in Canada for failing to file tax returns; Bahamas-based Suisse Security Bank & Trust, which is in provisional liquidation, has asked a U. S. judge to order two parties who unsuccessfully sued the bank in New York to place $1.3 million into court to cover its legal fees and damages; Trading on the over-the-counter market of shares in a company that Bermuda-based Lines Overseas Management was helping to do a reverse take-over of has been temporarily suspended pending an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States; and Famed U. S. attorney Johnnie Cochrane may be helping to broker a settlement in the long-running battle for control of the assets of Eurofed Bank in Antigua.

    Lincoln Fraser staves off bankruptcy (for now)

    Imperial Consolidated co-founder Lincoln Fraser has staved off personal bankruptcy - at least for the time being - after a commercial rent debt of £16,599 (US$26,600) was paid at the eleventh hour. A petition to have Fraser declared bankrupt was due to be heard at Grimsby County Court, England on January 20, 2003. It did not proceed after payment in full was made earlier in the month, said a spokesman for the petitioning creditor, Nadan Properties Ltd., of London.

    Insider Talking: December 31, 2002

    UK-based Capital City Finance Limited, which was formed on August 20, 2001 as a spin-off from the Imperial Consolidated Group, is three and a half months overdue with the filing of its annual return with Companies House for England and Wales; If clients of St. Vincent-licensed Omnicorp Bank needed further evidence that they are being taken to the cleaners by the bank's management, there has been plenty of it recently; Investment fraudster Tracy Calvin Dunlap, Jr. was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison on December 19, 2002 at the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.; Steve Saemmler Klein, who operates a dubious Belize-based offshore group known as Grupo CAT, has apparently gone missing; and Alyn Richard Waage, 56, of Canada, and James Michael Webb, 40, of California, were extradited on December 19, 2002 from Costa Rica to Sacramento, California to face numerous federal charges relating to the Tri-West Investment Club, an Internet-based investment fraud scheme that allegedly netted more that $60 million.

    Doubts raised about latest Imperial Consolidated spin-off

    Citigroup has cast doubt on the legitimacy of a new investment scheme whose participants include two key players in the $345 million fraud perpetrated by the Imperial Consolidated Group.Edouardos Stamatiou and Robert Raven are involved in an attempt by United Financial Corporation S. A. to sell $110 million one-year Certificates of Deposit bearing annual interest of up to 14 per cent.

    Insider Talking: November 30, 2002

    The British Columbia Securities Commission has scheduled a hearing for December 10 11, 2002 to consider applications to vary asset freeze orders relating to accounts at the Bank of Montreal in Vancouver that were frozen in 2000 as part of

    Insider Talking: October 31, 2002

    In the wake of action taken by Swiss authorities against the Zurich based Sovereign Finance Group, which is being investigated for money laundering involving Russia and the Caribbean, regulators in St. Vincent & the Grenadines are taking action against Sovereign

    Imperial Consolidated administrator warns of dubious ‘asset recovery’ scheme

    Imperial Consolidated administrator Mazars Neville is warning victims of the Imperial fraud to be wary of approaches for money by Weddington Holdings Ltd., which may be an advance fee fraud.Weddington has been telephoning and emailing clients of Imperial and asking them for $2,500 each to purportedly fund an "Asset Recovery Program" outside of that being conducted by Mazars Neville.

    Insider Talking: September 30, 2002

    The Imperial Consolidated fraud has taken a further turn for the bizarre with the distribution in September of several press releases, masquerading as news stories, by a newly incorporated British company called Matrix International (Management) Ltd., whose commercial address is

    Insider Talking: August 31, 2002

    European Federal Union Bank Ltd. falsely claims to be based in Antigua; Barbados Central Bank revokes license of Keywest Swiss Investment Bank Inc.; DIAK Bank's Clifford Pitt fails in an attempt to quash a subpoena duces tecum; John Wayne Zidar is gound guilty of fraud and money laundering; US federal court approves IRS motion to serve John Doe summons on MasterCard International for investigation into tax evasion using offshore credit cards; Offshore bankers Julien Giraud and Brian Boeger have each been sentenced to 37 months in prison in the United States; and an auction of property belonging to Imperial Consolidated is due to take place in England.

    Former Imperial Consolidated insiders set up new investment scam

    A new investment scam that has arisen out of the ashes of the failed Imperial Consolidated Group is being run along virtually identical lines, OffshoreAlert can reveal. Potential investors in a British Virgin Islands-registered firm doing business as 'Property International' are being offered annual interest rates of 18 per cent by Imperial's former management and promoters.

    Eight years in prison for promoter of fraudulent offshore products

    A United States-based promoter of sham offshore investment products has been sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of securities fraud in Texas. Cameron O. Bailey was also fined a total of $6,000 and ordered to pay restitution to his victims when he was sentenced on August 29, 2002 at the 283rd District Court for Dallas, in Dallas County, Texas.

    Marsh (Bermuda) M.D. among victims of Imperial Consolidated fraud

    Five Bermuda residents, including Marsh Management's second-ranking officer on the island, are among worldwide victims of a massive investment fraud. Rory Gorman was a client of the Imperial Consolidated Group, which went into administration in the United Kingdom in June with liabilities of $345 million. Gorman is the Managing Director/Client Services of Marsh Management Services (Bermuda) Ltd., which describes itself as the "world leader in the management of captive insurance companies".

    Asset freeze order issued against Imperial Consolidated founders

    A worldwide mareva injunction has been issued in the United Kingdom against Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook, who co-founded the fraudulently-operated Imperial Consolidated Group. The injunction freezes all personal and business assets belonging to Fraser and Brook.

    Imperial Consolidated administrator awaits results of geological survey in Argentina

    The results of an independent geological survey of 4.5 million acres of land in Argentina to which the Imperial Consolidated Group has mining rights are expected to be known by the end of August. They will go a long way to determining the level of dividend creditors can reasonably expect, said a spokesman for Imperial's UK-based administrator, Mazars Neville Russell.

    The Importance of Due Diligence: Summary of failed libel actions against OffshoreAlert

    The recent collapse of the Imperial Consolidated Group and the eviction of The Harris Organization from its office space in Panama (see 'Insider Talking') is further proof of the value of OffshoreAlert. Imperial Consolidated's dubious activities were first exposed in OffshoreAlert on November 30, 1999 - 29 months before its offshore bank was taken over by Grenada's regulators and, remarkably, more than two months before it was even established.

    Imperial Consolidated has debts of US$336 million

    The value of mining rights in economically crippled Argentina will determine the financial condition of the Imperial Consolidated Group. More than 50 per cent of Imperial's total assets - on paper - are in holdings in mining ventures in Tucuman, said a spokesman for the group's UK-based administrator, Mazars Neville Russell Services.

    Lincoln Fraser blames OffshoreAlert for Imperial Consolidated’s problems

    After many months of refusing to be interviewed by OffshoreAlert, Imperial Consolidated co-founder Lincoln Fraser finally responded to questions about his business activities on June 30. In an email, Fraser inferred that it was inaccurate to state that Imperial had "collapsed" and disputed our assertion that he had a track record of failure in business, even though he was petitioned into bankruptcy in 1996 by a creditor, was last year disqualified from serving as a company director for four years in the UK and has managed at least two previous firms which were compulsorily wound-up by their creditors, namely Progressive Leisure Ltd. and Fraser Brook Corporation Ltd.

    Imperial Consolidated goes into administration

    The Imperial Consolidated Group has gone into 'voluntary administration' in the United Kingdom. The news was announced today by Imperial's London-based public relations firm, Luther Pendragon.

    Imperial Consolidated Group’s offshore liabilities estimated at $170 m

    The Imperial Consolidated Group has offshore liabilities of approximately $170 million and has so far been unable to provide evidence to regulators that it has any substantial assets, OffshoreAlert can reveal. Imperial has not even been able to produce any books, let alone assets, according to a source who is familiar with the current investigation into the group by Grenada's Ministry of Finance.

    Insider Talking: April 30, 2002

    Business associated with Imperial Consolidated founders Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook applies for permission to use a property on an old Royal Air Force base in England to store and test military equipment, Offshore Finance Authority of St. Vincent & the Grenadines revokes licenses of nine offshore banks, BVI Financial Secretary L. Allen Wheatley suspended from his duties after being arrested and charged with conspiracy to defraud, Bahamas International Securities Exchange reports net loss of $2.24 million for the 11 monthsended June 30, 2001, criminal action against Yank Barry drags on in Texas, British businessman Sean Quinn charged with US$3 million fraud in Barbados, former FIBG principals fail to comply with subpoeans, and the ego of Marc Harris apparently knows no bounds.

    Grenada regulators take administrative control of Imperium Bank

    The future of the Imperial Consolidated Group has been thrown into doubt after regulators in Grenada took administrative control of its offshore bank. Imperium Bank cannot make any financial disbursements without the consent of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is conducting a 15-day review of its books at the behest of the government.

    Grenada acts against three offshore banks

    Grenada's Minister of Finance, Anthony Boatswain, has publicly announced that a review is being carried out of three offshore banks: Imperium Bank, AvantGuard Bank and CornerStone International Savings and Investment Bank.

    Arms dealer obtains asset freeze order against Imperial Consolidated Group

    A Spanish court has issued an order that allows an international arms dealer and a related firm to freeze $8.5 million of assets belonging to the Imperial Consolidated Group. The order was issued on March 8, 2002 by the Court of the First Instance, in Marbella against Imperial Consolidated Inc., of Delaware; Imperium Bank, of Grenada; and Consolidated Mining Corporation Inc., of the Bahamas.

    Merrill Scott reinvents itself with a new name and allegedly stolen property

    Items that were stolen from the premises of Merrill Scott and Associates four days after an SEC lawsuit was filed against the firm were allegedly found in the office of a new firm set up by former employees. That is a claim being made by the attorney who has been appointed Receiver for the Merrill Scott group, which was based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Bahamas.

    Alpha Toronto denies link with Bermuda-registered fund

    A new group that is operated from the same offices as Imperial Consolidated by people who are described as ex-Imperial employees has denied that it has become involved with a Bermuda-registered mutual fund. A spokesman for Alpha Toronto described as "incorrect" an article that was recently published in a magazine operated by British-based Charterhouse Communications.

    OffshoreAlert’s Five-Year Anniversary

    This month's edition of OffshoreAlert marks our fifth anniversary of continuous publication, having launched the newsletter on February 24, 1997. In the 60 editions since that date, OffshoreAlert has exposed many financial frauds committed around the globe involving many hundreds of millions of dollars.

    Insider Talking: January 31, 2002

    Less than a month after they were taken down as a result of an OffshoreAlert investigation, references to Grenada-registered Euro Caribbean Bank have been reinstated on the web-site of the 'Stock Exchange' of the sham country known as the Dominion of Melchizedek; Caribbean Media Corporation, which operated the Caribbean News Agency, popularly known as CANA, has suspended operations; Another web-site that has shut down, albeit for different reasons, is that of Prosperitas Internationale Credit Union at www.prosperitasinternationale.com; Vanuatu-domiciled International Seminars Ltd., which organizes offshore seminars at which get-rich-quick schemes are promoted, is operating under a new name - Global Wealth Education Ltd.; John Bourbon resigned as Managing Director of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, effective January 16, 2002 - 18 months after taking up the position, citing "personal reasons"; An ex-SEC officer is critical of his former employer in a book he has written about how the stock markets and the Internet are used to commit fraud against the unsuspecting public; Clyde Hood, the 67-year-old retired electrician from Mattoon, Illinois who persuaded thousands of people from all around the world to collectively send him more than $12 million by offering a return of 5,000 per cent in 275 days, has been sentenced to serve 14 years in prison; A web-site has been set up to raise funds to defend Kenneth R. Weare, of Belize-based J&K Global Marketing, against an SEC lawsuit filed on April 10, 2001, even though the case has ended without the defendants or their legal representatives ever putting in an appearance; The Isle of Man government has granted an online gaming license to Action Online Entertainment (IOM) Limited, which is the fifth firm to receive such a license; Imperial Consolidated is blaming its lawyers for its loss of a libel lawsuit in New Zealand, in which the judge determined they had fabricated documents submitted as evidence and questioned the legitimacy of their investment products; and Justice Hugh Small, sitting at the Bahamas Supreme Court, issued an order on December 20, 2001 that the voluntary liquidation of Americas International Bank Corporation Ltd. be continued but under the supervision of the court.

    Imperial Consolidated loses lawsuit, accused by judge of backdating documents

    Imperial Consolidated, whose operations include an offshore bank and offshore mutual funds, has lost a defamation lawsuit that it brought in New Zealand against a former broker. In a judgment in the High Court of New Zealand on December 18, 2001, Judge William Young ruled that defendant David Frederick Stewart was being truthful when he criticized the group on a web-site.

    Reorganization continues at scandal-plagued Imperial Consolidated

    Michael Gilbert, who was severely criticized by a New Zealand judge in a recent court ruling (see separate story), is part of a reorganization that involves the Imperial Consolidated Group and companies with the prefix 'Alpha'.The firm that he is a director of changed its name from Imperial Consolidated (New Zealand) Ltd. to Alpha Equities Asia-Pacific (NZ) Ltd. on November 29, 2001.

    Insider Talking: November 30, 2001

    Imperial Consolidated founders Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook have been given additional time to wind up their business affairs before their four year disqualification as company directors in England and Wales becomes effective. A judge sitting at Blackpool County Court