Boiler rooms | REDD-Monitor

Bar Works is Renwick Haddow’s latest investment vehicle. Haddow has a history of disastrous investment schemes, the most notorious being the Capital Alternatives network. Bar Works is going the same way, leaving investors worried about where their money has gone. Last week a concerned investor sent REDD-Monitor the most recent string of excuses about why […]

On 11 May 2017, four men were sentenced in Blackfriars Crown Court in London to jail for selling precious metals as investments. The metals were almost worthless. The conmen duped retail investors out of £7.75 million. Two of the men, Christopher Sabin and Tobias Ridpath, were jailed for nine years. They were behind two companies: […]

Franklin Kinard sent out another email update yesterday. It’s posted in full below. Kinard is leaving Bar Works. In January 2017, when Konrad Putzer wrote about Bar Works on the New York property website The Real Deal, Jonathan Black was listed as CEO and co-founder. Within weeks, Black’s name was replaced by Kinard’s on Bar […]

Thorn Medical is a health care company. It was founded in July 2014 by Jack Kaye, a telecoms entrepreneur. The company was planning a £350 million flotation in 2016. In February 2016, Thorn Medical’s directors included Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Eric Peacock, and Sir John Lucas-Tooth. Thorn Medical’s Corporate Adviser was Opus Capital Limited, a company […]

The EcoPlanet Bamboo investment saga continues its slow unravelling. In 2012, EcoPlanet Bamboo (UK) Ltd sold “bamboo bonds” to retail investors (promising returns of up to 895%!). In December 2015, investors received a letter from EcoPlanet Bamboo offering them the option of converting their bonds into shares in the Eco Resources Fund, a company incorporated […]

Since January 2017, REDD-Monitor has written a series of posts about Renwick Haddow’s latest investment scheme, Bar Works, a New York-based co-working startup company. Last week, Law360 reported that Bar Works “is now the subject of at least two lawsuits from investors who call it a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme”. On 16 June 2017, a group […]

On 30 June 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a legal complaint against Renwick Haddow. The SEC alleges that Haddow fraudulently raised almost US$38 million from investors. The SEC has obtained an emergency asset freeze against Haddow and his companies named in the complaint. On the same day, federal prosecutors announced a criminal complaint […]

In January 2017, the Kelantan state government in Malaysia signed a REDD deal with a company called Climate Protectors. The REDD project covers an area of 396,000 hectares, one-quarter of the state’s land area. Under the deal, Climate Protectors would run the project for 30 years, and receive 45% of the money from the sale […]

A company called Koenig Rowe Campbell Alliance is cold calling people in several countries, claiming to be a wealth advisory firm established in 1978. KRC Alliance takes clients’ money and claims to invest it. The investment will need to be increased, for whatever made up reason, to reach a certain number of shares. Then, in […]

Thorn Medical has written to shareholders to tell them that the company is insolvent and will be placed in voluntary liquidation. Thorn Medical is a healthcare company, founded in July 2014 by Jack Kaye. In 2015, the company announced that it was planning a £350 million listing on the London Stock Exchange. A listing on […]

April Salumei is a REDD project in Papua New Guinea. Various companies, including Qantas, Eneco Energy Trade, and Norwegian supermarket chain Rema 1000, have bought carbon credits from the April Salumei REDD project. Should you so wish, you can buy carbon credits from the project on the USAID-funded website Stand for Trees. The project is […]

Earlier this week, “Fallguy” left a comment on REDD-Monitor. “Has anyone had dealings with Delta Financial Markets Ltd?”, Fallguy asked. A few years ago, Fallguy was scammed into buying carbon credits as an investment. He’s now on a “sucker list”. These lists are an important part of scammers’ operations. They consist of names, addresses, phone […]

In July 2017, a group of over 150 people who had been scammed into buying “carbon benefit units” got in touch with REDD-Monitor. Several London-based boiler room operations, including Industry RE, had sold them the “carbon benefit units”, supposedly as investments. Unfortunately they were worthless. The “carbon benefit units” came from the April Salumei REDD […]

In October 2017, “Oscar” left a comment on REDD-Monitor. “I have been contacted by Capital Advisory Group Ireland re my carbon credits,” Oscar wrote. Five years ago, Oscar was scammed into buying carbon credits as an investment. He’s now on what the scammers call a “sucker list”. These lists consist of names, addresses, phone number, […]

Last year, REDD-Monitor wrote a series of posts about Renwick Haddow’s latest scam, Bar Works. The most recent post was in July 2017, after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a legal complaint against Haddow. The complaint alleged that Haddow fraudulently raised almost US$38 million from investors. Haddow faces up to 40 years in prison […]

Asia Beijing Corporation is cold calling victims of Renwick Haddow’s scam, Bar Works. Asia Beijing Corporation claims to be able to “exchange the toxic asset” for shares in Ant Financial Services Group. Of course, Asia Beijing Corporation is running a ridiculously obvious recovery room scam. We’ll look briefly at Asia Beijing Corporation’s recovery room story, […]

In 2011, a Swiss company called World Markets AG bought five million “carbon benefit units”. They came from the April Salumei REDD project in Papua New Guinea. World Markets sold the “carbon benefit units” at a profit of over US$5 million. One of the developers of the April Salumei REDD project, Sean Lewis, was appointed […]

A recent article by Angeli Mehta on the website Ethical Corporation reports on a “young company” called EcoPlanet Bamboo. Mehta writes that “EcoPlanet Bamboo is creating permanent jobs for communities.” Camille Rebelo, co-founder of EcoPlanet Bamboo, told Mehta that, “These are multi-generational projects … In Nicaragua that [means it is creating jobs for] 90-120 years […]

Capital Alternatives Limited was part of a

Renwick Haddow, the man behind the Capital Alternatives network of scam companies, a an alleged Bitcoin fraud and the Bar Works investment scam, has been extradited to the USA. He appeared in a Manhattan District Court on 13 April 2018. Haddow has been charged with two counts of wire fraud, for Bitcoin Store and Bar […]

An update from Bar Works’ Franklin Kinard: “I want this fixed as desperately as all of you”

Four conmen who sold rare earth metals have been jailed in the UK. One of them is Nick Start, who threatened to sue REDD-Monitor two years ago

Franklin Kinard leaves Bar Works: “I have completed my reorganization, and I am leaving the company”

Thorn Medical has been bought out by Teknisity Inc.

The EcoPlanet Bamboo investment saga continues: Who is John Bourbon? And why does he want a new liquidator?

Investors file two lawsuits against Bar Works

United States of America versus Renwick Haddow

How a big REDD project unravelled in Kelantan, Malaysia

Koenig Rowe Campbell Alliance: More red flags than a golf course

Thorn Medical: “The company is not in a position to meet its financial obligations and therefore must be wound up”

Some questions for Stephen Hooper about the “carbon benefit units” sold from his April Salumei REDD project in Papua New Guinea

A company calling itself “Delta Financial Markets” is running a recovery room scam

Does the April Salumei REDD project still exist? More questions for Stephen Hooper about his project in Papua New Guinea. And a reminder about the 14 still unanswered questions that REDD-Monitor asked two months ago

A company calling itself “Capital Advisory Group” is running a recovery room scam

Renwick Haddow and Bar Works: Extradition process and court cases update

Asia Beijing Corporation is running a recovery room scam, targeting Bar Works victims

Interview with Kate Heller, VCS Communications Manager, about April Salumei: “We cannot speak for the other ‘credits’ issued by the project”

How EcoPlanet Bamboo duped World Resources Institute and The Nature Conservancy

London High Court orders Capital Alternatives to repay £16.9 million. New York Southern District Court orders Bar Works and Bitcoin Store to pay US$83.35 million

Renwick Haddow appears in court in New York