TONY HETHERINGTON: What's the truth about this energy firm promising me 12% returns?
R.B. writes: Some time ago I was contacted by TBE Consultants Ltd about investments in Terra Firma Energy Ltd.
They said: 'Our clients enjoy a 12 per cent return on their capital inside 12 months.'
I did not invest, but I have now seen a website called Stonehold Investment also promoting Terra Firma Energy.
Are you able to find out anything about this company and the people who run it?
Tony Hetherington replies: This investigation began in January, with more than a few twists and turns since then.
Let's start with the sales firm TBE Consultants. Coincidentally, a few weeks after I began enquiring, its owner William Davies put it into liquidation with debts estimated at £1.7 million.
According to the Financial Conduct Authority, Davies was once an investment adviser at Beaufort Securities, already a disreputable stockbroking company when he joined in 2005. The City watchdog fined it £90,000 in 2006. He also ran finance firm Salesian Consultants Ltd until he put this into liquidation in 2019.
He borrowed more than £79,000 from it but convinced the liquidator to accept just £30,000 in settlement, saying he was close to bankruptcy.
A few months later, Davies became a director of one of the Terra Firma Energy (TFE) group of companies and now sits on the board of four TFE businesses. So when TBE Consultants was recommending investment in TFE, Davies was a boss at both. The salesman who contacted you from TBE Consultants was Stephen Leary, whose background in dodgy investments is pretty scary. He is currently banned for 14 years from acting as a director of any limited company following his central role at Worldwide Commodity Partners Ltd, an investment scam which cost investors almost £3 million. That said, this does not stop him from working in his present role.
According to the FCA, Leary was also at two separate disreputable stockbrokers, both exposed by The Mail on Sunday.
And while a salesman at TBE Consultants he marketed loan bonds issued by Platinum Assets And Developments (PAD).
I warned in 2020 that this was a high-risk scheme. It relied largely on the prospects of an offshoot, Platinum Energy Solutions, but last year the High Court ordered this into liquidation because of its debts.
And here is a link to Terra Firma Energy. Peter Eagle was the managing director of the failed Platinum Energy Solutions, and he became a director of TFE in 2020 until quitting in 2021.
The day-to-day management team at TFE are just as interesting. When I began investigating, its business development manager was Dan Keenan. In 2012 he was jailed for 11 years for money laundering and other financial crimes, linking him to a major drug dealer. And before this he was jailed for five years for blackmail and conspiracy to defraud. Mr Keenan vanished from TFE's website within hours of my first questions to the company.
Simon Fagan was named as TFE's legal adviser. He is a Manchester solicitor, and in 2015 he was a director of radiator company Xefro Ltd, the parent company of Xefro Trade, which was wound up by the High Court following an investigation which described its products as defective and dangerous.
Of course, none of this means TFE's 12 per cent loan notes will flop. The firm exists and runs 'battery farms' that store power with the idea of selling it on. It is concerning, though, that its website claims TFE is in partnership with National Grid, which told me: 'Terra Firma sell power to the electricity grid, or into the national energy market. They do not sell it to National Grid.'
TFE did, however, say that their assets had participated in the electricity market.
TFE's loan notes are only supposed to be offered to experienced or wealthy investors who can take risks. The website of Stonehold Investment – where you spotted the TFE investment – emphasises this. And it should know, as Stonehold Investment is just TFE itself using a different name!
Stonehold has claimed to be 'award winners' and 'trusted by 123,000 investors'. What awards? And how many investors!
Well, I asked TFE about Stonehold and about its personnel. TFE failed to reply, but back like a guided missile came a rocket fired at me by its lawyers.
Stonehold's claims erroneously appeared in Google results, they conceded. TFE had no explanation but would correct this.
Yes, William Davies was a stockbroker but was just one of many employees at firms penalised by the regulator. Nothing to do with TFE, they added.
Yes, Stephen Leary is banned as a director for ripping off investors, but this does not ban him from recruiting investors now for TFE, they explained.
Yes, Simon Fagan provides legal advice to TFE, but so what, as TFE has no connection to disgraced company Xefro.
The lawyers insisted that TFE's management team had no idea of Dan Keenan's prison record and told me that he has now left the company by mutual agreement. If so, it might be a good idea to ask Mr Keenan to change his LinkedIn page, which still says he is TFE's full-time business development manager.
It might also be a good idea for Helen Aletras, one of TFE's management team, to stop putting holiday photos online showing her with Mr Keenan, who she has known for many years.
Mysteriously, investment in TFE's loan notes was promoted via a now-defunct website called bestrenewableenergyinvestor.com. This claimed that TFE has a '15-year purchase agreement with National Grid'.
However, I am told now that TFE has no idea who ran the sales site, or why they promoted TFE as an investment.
TFE's lawyers also told me there was no reason that any of this should be published.
I disagree.
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