According to the website of a cryptocurrency investment company, Bitcoin has had its day and now you should pour your money into Litecoin.
LtcAutoMining says you can expect the Litecoin to surge in value 20-fold in the next three to four years, and adds the somewhat implausible promise: “There is no risk. We guarantee your refund at any time.”
If you need extra reassurance, LtcAutoMining’s website proudly displays its Companies House incorporation document.
Let’s say, hypothetically, that you do invest with this company and later find you can’t withdraw your money and it doesn’t answer your calls or emails.
Then you might try visiting its registered office address at a house in Peckham, South East London.
There you’ll discover no sign of it, but you might find the chap living there, Holger Sell.
His home address has been repeatedly used as the registered office for companies that he knows nothing about. In fact, as I wrote in the summer, his whole street has been plagued by companies claiming to be based there.
My article in August showed that Holger’s home had been used by 20 of these fakes. Despite flagging this up, it’s still going on, and another 10 companies have since been registered at his home, including LtcAutoMining.
For every fake, he has to go through the laborious process of having his details removed from the record, providing proof that he is the real resident – something Companies House never asked for when it allowed the fakes to be incorporated in the first place.
“I have just returned from a break overseas and the mass of Company House letters I have had is unreal,” he said.
“I cannot believe that nothing has changed. This is taking up so much time to deal with, it’s absolutely crazy.
"Some other residents now need to take legal advice as they need a court order to remove their address from the company 'person with significant control' record. Who is paying for this? I was inclined to write to Companies House and tell them we are invoicing for the legal advice and time spent on this.”
I asked LtcAutoMining why they were using Holger’s address without permission and received no reply, though I can say that, far from being in Peckham, my email was opened in Hong Kong.
Companies House admits that it does not verify the details that are filed and this includes not just the addresses but the named directors.
The director of LtcAutoMining Limited according to the record is someone called David Velor, born in February 1985.
Another company using Holger’s address is Tarvis Limited which claims to have a director called David Velar born in May 1986, and a third is Delos Investors Club Limited with a director called David Velar, born in May 1990.
I can’t find evidence of any of these David Velars or Velors existing in the UK outside the fantasy world of Companies House.
Even LtcAutoMining are unsure about the name of their own director, calling him Velor David on their website.
The coincidence of these unusual names makes it likely that all these companies have been set up by the same gang.
Another company at his address, Market Maker Group Limited, claims to have share capital of “£1,000 million”, which you might have thought would have raised eyebrows at Companies House, but no.
Long-overdue reform of Companies House is proposed within the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill.
In October, Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, told MPs in the Commons the current lax controls allow criminals “a veneer of legitimacy to help them to commit crimes, ranging from grand corruption and money laundering to fraud and identity theft.”
Critics warn that the reforms will only work if the current fee of £12 to incorporate companies is increased in line with other countries, with the money it raises being used to fight company fraud.
PS, crooks are using the proposed reforms to try to harvest private company information. They are sending emails purporting to be from Companies House with an attachment supposedly about the Economic Crime Bill and a message that says: “These changes will affect you and your business.”
Companies House warns: “Do not open any attachments, respond to the email or click on any links.”
investigate@mirror.co.uk
