TTF Blog: 04 January 2021

by Alex Varley-Winter, TTF’s Head of Media Relations & Investigative Reporting

As 2020 neared its close, police for Interpol arrested ferrari-driving millionaire Anthony Armstrong-Emery in the United Arab Emirates. His purported Brazilian social housing scheme, EcoHouse,  cost most investors more than £20,000 each in  savings. Investors first started raising concerns around 2013.

EcoHouse was promoted by British solicitors (one of them since struck-off) and has caused losses around the world. Last autumn the Mirror’s Andrew Penman picked up on the case as an example of the U.K.’s apparent inaction against fraud.

With Armstrong-Emery’s arrest Interpol, acting for Brazil, has homed in on the scheme’s alleged mastermind  several years on from its collapse. Might U.K. police now re-engage more openly with his beleaguered investors? The Met is yet to produce reports that they had proposed to write more than three years ago to give them leads on where their money went.

Ponzi complainants’ years of suspense

On January 3rd, one of the EcoHouse victims told TTF that he has just surveyed the experiences of more than 60 others regarding the Met Police’s handling of their cases. They have heard so little positive news that they feel as if ‘the case investigation & prosecution has inexplicably disappeared, like a ship in the Bermuda Triangle’.

Tantalising evidence on where victims’ money went has dangled just out of reach since 2017, apparently in the hands of the Met Police, with the EcoHouse creditors now beyond desperate for disclosure.

The evidence that exists sounds compelling. Investigating Met officer Richard Kirk wrote in 2017 that he had obtained ‘invaluable evidence’ from PwC including ‘bank ledgers that give me more information than I have received previously. These show the destination of some of the funds, especially to overseas accounts.’ 

Kirk also obtained “copies of all the receipts that Ecohouse held in respect of their expenditure. These will enable me to give a much more detailed report into where and when your funds were dissipated.”

Yet years passed, these reports for investors have never yet been disclosed by the Met, and Richard Kirk now works for Humberside Police.

For complainants, this means that an air of mystery is now hanging around this case. News of Armstrong-Emery’s arrest came to light for many of them only when the article was translated online in December. They have been left grasping for straws of hope when it comes to tracing the money they invested.

I can only imagine the emotional toll it would take, having to wait indefinitely for a paper-trail that you know exists. Hopefully 2021 will see victims being treated better. As the global pandemic has decimated financial security for so many people, scam victims are keener than ever to trace their squandered funds.

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Updated for clarity -9th Jan:

Since writing this, an EcoHouse investor got in touch asking me to clarify an important point. the Mirror’s story which I linked to above, is a case of alleged double and separate victimisation.

I’ll expand on this, to avoid confusion:

AIS Marine

At an EcoHouse creditors meeting, investor Anthony Tabor was reportedly approached about a different scheme run by different people, called AIS Marine, that he then also put part of his life savings into. AIS Marine later collapsed. Regarding this second scheme Tabor told the Mirror: “According to Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, a £2.4m loss to 25 investors is below their threshold … it seems far more effort would be put into a report of a stolen car.”

The Mirror chose to headline on this issue of thresholds. It struck me as a burning issue. I contacted City of London Police a few days ago and asked them what the thresholds are for investigation? They said they’ll come back to me. Penman’s article contains an oblique response that alludes to resources: “With more than 32,000 reports of fraud made to Action Fraud every month, police forces unfortunately can’t investigate them all. ” And: “It is crucial reports which have viable lines of enquiry and are of significant threat to the public are actioned.”

What is ‘viable’ and what constitutes a threat to the public? How do they decide between these cases? It was a significant allegation in terms of the losses involved,  the Mirror reported that Tabor lost his life savings to the scheme.

Justice delayed-

EcoHouse, a separate scheme to AIS Marine, was Tabor’s prior investment. It incurred 850 investors losses of £21M and was referred to the Met police several years ago. On Action Fraud’s basis a referral like this might amount to action. However for victims, the apparent delays on the Met’s EcoHouse probe remain ridiculous, with investors held in suspense for years. A Met Police spokesman told the Mirror’s Andrew Penman, that inquiries by the Economic Crime team were ‘still ­continuing’.