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Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s star investigator, battling readers’ corners, revealing the truth behind closed doors and winning victories for those left penniless. Find out how to contact him below.
AT writes: I received an unsolicited email from a company called Hoffman Chase.
It claims to offer high-yield investments in cognac, but although it appears to have only opened its doors in January, some of its favorable reviews on Trustpilot must be fake, as they refer to investments made months ago.
Tony Hetherington replies: Well described! Trustpilot had already removed some Hoffman Chase reviews, but more remained. Among them was one from ‘Michael Peters’, who claimed to have invested last August: ‘My collection has already increased in value after just a few months.’
And ‘Christie Reynolds’ told Trustpilot she invested last May: “I’m pretty new to this market, but I’m sure they’ve just gained a very loyal customer.”
Stranger: Hoffman Chase says investors could lose everything
I featured them on Trustpilot and now they are gone. Trustpilot told me: “In the case of Hoffman Chase Ltd, since the beginning of the year, our fraud detection software has identified and removed 43 fake reviews.” The cognac company was warned and asked to clean up, but this did not work.
Trustpilot said: “We have further evidence to suggest that Hoffman Chase Ltd has continued to obtain fake reviews.” Now another dozen have been removed. Trustpilot posted a warning to consumers on its about-company page and demanded that Hoffman Chase remove the fake reviews.
However, fake articles are just the beginning of the questions. Hoffman Chase tells investors that his cognac is safe because it is stored in the London wine tunnels, where it is fully insured. There is no company like London Wine Tunnels, but there is a genuine storage company called simply The Wine Tunnels, with facilities in Kent and Wiltshire. Could this be? Definitely not, according to its director Sarah Labat. She told me: ‘We can confirm 100 percent that Hoffman Chase is not a client of ours. “We have never spoken or had any contact with them, and they are not a company we have previously heard of in the UK wine and spirits market.”
And if investors’ cognac is safely stored and secured, how does this explain the curious claim Hoffman Chase makes on an independent website, cognacinvestment.com? He warns that no one should invest “unless they are prepared for the possibility of losing all invested funds.” What could go so wrong that investors would lose every penny?
I asked this question and others to the sole director of Hoffman Chase. This is Thea Hoffman, from Brighton, and I asked her where she gained her experience in cognac investments, as the only background I found showed that she worked for a local estate agent. I also asked about fake reviews, some of which are copied word for word from other places. Until she took over and rebranded it, her company was called Apex Gallery and was owned by art dealer Ryan Marsh. The Hoffman Chase website that sold cognac didn’t even exist.
Hoffman responded: ‘This is extremely confusing. I will review his points and respond shortly.’ But he did not answer any questions about his cognac, its storage, his insurance or his knowledge of the business. Curiously, her only response has been to blame unknown people who, according to her, have chosen to post fake reviews on Trustpilot. She told me: ‘It certainly seems that some have not been genuinely abandoned. We have reported numerous unacknowledged reviews ourselves and, as she can see, they have been removed.’
Their website boasts: “At Hoffman and Chase, transparency is the foundation of our philosophy.” But it seems that only until someone asks uncomfortable questions. This cognac scheme leaves a very bitter taste.
WE ARE WATCHING YOU
Two weeks ago I reported that cannabis investment firm Orange River Capital had not paid a promised dividend to investors who had purchased preferred shares.
The shares have been trading since 2022, with a fixed dividend of 15 percent, but do not give investors a say in the running of the company, controlled by its sole director Lee Farbrace.
Two years ago I warned that the share offering document was riddled with falsehoods. Farbrace has not presented accounts since 2021, which is a crime. Investors have been told their money was used to buy a minority stake in Greengrow Capital, a South African company said to operate a medicinal cannabis plantation.
Missing money: Cannabis investment company Orange River Capital has not paid the dividend promised to investors
Now, in a statement to its investors, Farbrace has blamed its partners in South Africa for its own failure to pay investors, saying they put too much effort into the investigation.
He told shareholders: “The unintended effect of pursuing scientific advances over profitability is that Greengrow has not produced income commercially to cover a distribution to Orange River Capital and ORC is therefore unable to pay its 2023 dividend.” . No accounts have been issued for Greengrow.
Farbrace’s solution is to ask investors for more money. It says it is offering the same fixed dividend preferred shares to raise a new $1.2 million to support new management in South Africa.
He highlights that ORC owns 49 percent of Greengrow, but without accounts from either of them, it is impossible to answer the question: 49 percent of what?
If you believe you are a victim of financial irregularity, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large volume of inquiries, it is not possible to provide personal responses. Please only send copies of the original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.