Did my 94-year-old dad's investment go up in smoke? TONY HETHERINGTON
by Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail on Sunday · Mail OnlineTony 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.
I read with interest the report of your investigation last year regarding Cannadex Limited and the bonds it issued.
My father, who is 94, is a victim. Despite my contacting Cannadex over the past year, this is no nearer being resolved, and the money that is due is needed for dad’s care. Mrs C.S.
Tony Hetherington replies: It is a year since I sounded the alarm over medicinal cannabis company Cannadex and its loan bonds, and things have got worse rather than better.
Your father invested £15,000 in its secured bonds, which promised interest of 11.75 per cent with capital repaid in full in 2022.
You hold your father’s power of attorney, and when you checked his bank statements you found he had received neither interest nor repayment.
When you contacted Cannadex, the company replied that your father actually held convertible loan notes that were never repayable in cash.
Instead, his investment was swapped into shares in Cannadex – a failing business with no stock market listing that might have allowed him to sell those shares and recover some money.
But this is garbage. Your father’s certificate says: ‘Cannadex Limited promises to pay the sum of £15,000 along with annual interest of 11.75 per cent on the unpaid balance. This bond shall mature and be payable on January 28, 2022.’
The certificate is signed by Cannadex director Amit Kochhar. There is no mention of conversion into shares – and even if there were, your father has never received them.
I contacted Kochhar and asked him to comment and invited him to explain how his company’s loan bonds were marketed.
Your father was sold the bonds by a London investment firm named Charles Hunt, yet no such firm is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Kochhar failed to offer explanations, he simply resigned as a director of Cannadex. So, I contacted another director, Dr Balu Pitchiah.
He eventually wrote: ‘I was not involved in the day-to-day running of the company, and I’m forwarding your enquiry to Cannadex.’
He would not tell me who was running the company, and then he quit as a director.
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TONY HETHERINGTON: I haven't been paid for Cannadex cannabis bond
However, I did find that much of the paperwork surrounding the bond issue was carried out by My Investment Hub, an offshoot of an FCA-authorised firm called London Court.
The FCA has had serious concerns about London Court for at least five years. It imposed a series of restrictions on it, and it went into liquidation three months ago.
My Investment Hub was headed by financial adviser Ben Marsland. He was previously head of client services at Haich & Associates, which is also in liquidation and under investigation by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Before that, Marsland was with Copia Wealth Management. It is now in liquidation and the compensation scheme has upheld complaints of mis-selling.
Marsland is now a financial adviser with Cheetham Jackson, which is based in Chorley in Lancashire and has no connection to his earlier employers.
I asked for his comments on your father’s Cannadex investment, his work for firms that collapsed, and I enquired about the Charles Hunt marketing business. He failed to offer any answers.
I don’t want to raise false hopes but it would certainly be worth contacting the compensation scheme.
Even though Cannadex is not in liquidation, the mis-selling of its bonds, and the connection to the disreputable My Investment Hub, may tip the balance in your father’s favour.
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.
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A scam cognac investment company that I warned against last February has thrown in the towel and closed down.
Hoffman Chase Ltd flooded consumer review site Trustpilot with fake postings from clients who claimed to have invested successfully with the Brighton-based business.
But a number were clearly false as they boasted of showing a profit on cognac bought from the firm in 2023, yet it only opened for business last January.
And Hoffman Chase claimed to store investors’ cognac in underground vaults run by a firm which seemed not to exist.
Sole director Thea Hoffman failed to offer any explanation and made the bizarre claim that fake reviews praising her business were posted by strangers which she found ‘confusing’.
She has now asked Companies House to dissolve Hoffman Chase, though it still claims on its LinkedIn page to have been founded in 2021, to have up to 50 staff and to be ‘building a team that embodies our commitment to honesty, integrity, and proactive engagement’.
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