Investment in company gone wrong, what are my options?

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8till8

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In April '05 I invested in a company and was supposed to get shares to the value of my investment.

I never received the shares.

Now its coming to light that there were upto 250 investors but only 50 are registered as shareholders, the other 200 have nothing (i.e. no shares) Each invested about €2,500 so the total amount is significant i.e about €500k

The directors of the company are unresponsive despite phonecalls, emails, registered letters and two meetings.

I intend to take legal action and since the amount is below €6,348, I can quite easily take a case to the district court.

The CRO submissions show that accounts last filed accounts was July-10 (accounts to date Nov-09) and I suspect the directors intend not to file anything and have the CRO strike them off.

My questions are;
-if the company is listed for strike off, can I halt this process?
-do I qualify as a creditor? i.e. I'm owed my shares or refund of investment
-is there anything else I can do in this situation?
 
It sounds like a simple fraud from your description.

You need to contact others who have been similarly defrauded.

It's unlikely that you will get your money back, but you might be able to get the Garda Fraud Office to prosecute them.

Or the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

If you paid up in 2005, why did you not pursue the share issue back then?

Brendan
 
The ODCE says that they aren't in breach of any company law but that if investment funds didn't reach the company then that would be a criminal matter which only the Gardai deal with.
What are my chances of going into a garda station outside of Dublin and hoping they will understand/investigate?
I didn't pursue before now out of naivety, I didn't know anything was wrong until recently, lesson learnt.
 
Yes they are based in Harcourt Sq;

http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=29

On their page they state
"The Bureau is not in a position to investigate every referred case of suspected fraud. For optimum resource utilisation, investigations are focused on major and complex fraud based on the following criteria -

· Monetary loss.

· Investigations involving a significant international dimension

· Investigations involving widespread public concern

· Investigations requiring specialised knowledge

· Investigations involving complex issues of law or procedure"

You could read into this that small white collar time is likely to pay, simply because its too small to investigate. Not the best message to be promoting...


What are your thoughts on the merits of a district court case?
I would have considered it to be a fairly easily proven case, I have the documentation showing that I was entitled to shares for my investment and shareholder listing from CRO proving that I'm not listed. Is it that straightforward?
 
Last edited:
8till8 said:
What are your thoughts on the merits of a district court case??
Click to expand...

Every case is a risk, how much will it cost you to go to the District Court for the 6K. And have the directors any money?

It's very strange you did nothing since 2005?
 
8till8 said:
What are your thoughts on the merits of a district court case?
I would have considered it to be a fairly easily proven case, I have the documentation showing that I was entitled to shares for my investment and shareholder listing from CRO proving that I'm not listed. Is it that straightforward?
Click to expand...

Going to court to pursue someone who is probably broke for €2,500 might be throwing good money after bad. Its not fair, but it might be best to consider it a bad investment and walk away.

If you had been one of the lucky 50 that did get a shareholding, would you have made money, or have those people lost their investment also ?

You have documents which show that you were defrauded, but it might not be as straight forward than that.

You need to get legal advice and ask the following.

Were you potentially defrauded by an individual or a company ? ( Different laws might apply)

Exactly, what is the applicable law and what proof will be required in court ?

What happens if you win and the defendents have no money ? ( You will probably still have to pay your own legal fees)
 
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