FSCS looks into allegations against DFM related to the hotel project in Cape Verde.
Clients were urged by Central Markets Investment Management to move their pension funds to a Cape Verde offshore real estate plan.
A discretionary fund manager located in Essex is presently being investigated by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) for allegedly having duped clients into investing in an extremely hazardous offshore real estate scheme. Among its other services, Central Markets Investment Management Limited advised trustees of small self-administered schemes (SSASs) in addition to managing discretionary funds. On July 2, the company went into voluntary liquidation, and Begbies Traynor's Louise Baxter and Dominik Thiel-Czerwinke were named joint liquidators.
The FSCS has confirmed that it is investigating outstanding claims against the company. It has indicated that claims will not be passed to its claims assessment team to review straightaway and that it is in the early stages of investigating whether there are any claims against Central Markets that meet the qualifying conditions for compensation. The number of claims being reviewed by the FSCS is currently unclear.
Since 2021, 19 complaints against the wealth firm have been upheld by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), some of which were filed by claims management companies. The basis for all 19 of the claims is that Central Markets advised an SSAS pension trustee to participate in The Resort Group, a well-known Cape Verdean hotel property plan. Rowanmoor, a supplier of SIPPs, and other pension schemes that have collapsed have been connected to the Resort Group.
In a March FOS ruling, a person who had been contacted by an unregulated introducer with a deal with Central Markets moved his Aegon pension into the hotel property scheme. The Ombudsman decided that the advice was inappropriate because of the person's risk tolerance and that Central Markets had illegally pushed the Cape Verde investment because it was not authorised to give SSAS trustees financial advice.
Please feel free to make an appointment or to learn more about how our SIPP claims experts can assist you with claiming compensation. You can reach us by telephone at 0800 046 9976, email us at info@smoothcl.co.uk, or fill out our quick online inquiry form. One of our SIPP experts will promptly get in touch with you.
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