Investment Fraud Lawyer

We are all aware that there can be a fine line between a legal company going out of business and investment fraud — something could happen to turn a business into a fraudulent entity, or a scam could be put in place and operated to appear as a legitimate investment opportunity. Yet regardless of how investment fraud originates, if you get stung, the crucial thing to remember is to not give up hope.

Our tough, business-savvy team of investment fraud lawyers at Pearl Lemon Legal offers professional guidance and support in a wide range of investment fraud situations. We have a track record of successfully assisting creditors and investors in recouping cash, both domestically and internationally, with a focus on cases involving cryptocurrency scams and binary option trading misconduct.

Give yourself the best opportunity to recover your money. Get in touch with us for further details about how a Pearl Lemon Legal investment fraud lawyer can help.

About Scams and Investment Frauds

Investments are never without risk, but the risk is exponentially greater for individuals who are not aware of the tricks used by predatory scammers. Identifying the warning indicators of investment fraud is the first line of defence against being a victim of a scam:

The old adage remains true: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Beware of unauthorised calls, texts, emails, or letters that offer one-time investment opportunities.
Avoid being pushed into making an investment of any kind. Give yourself time to conduct your research, so you can decide with confidence.
Consult a governmental organisation, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or a reputable independent financial practitioner for guidance.
Avoid getting conned twice. Avoid follow-on frauds, where con artists sell the information of victims to other con artists.

However, as you’ll know from the many stories seen in the media, even those who do their due diligence can fall victim to investment fraud. The second safeguard against losing out to investment fraud is to recover your funds by exercising your creditor rights to do so.

In a variety of investment fraud and scam situations, our investment fraud lawyers have successfully recovered money for our clients who were the victims of:

Cloned companies

Another unfortunate by-product of the rise of the Internet as a place to do business, in this con, the scam artist gives the impression of speaking for a legitimate business. Often, a very convincing fake website will be created, and while it may resemble the real company’s website almost exactly, the contact information will usually be different.

This is one investment fraud scenario in which our experienced investment fraud lawyers have seen people who genuinely thought they were too savvy to ‘get conned’ become embroiled. Fortunately, we have had the experience and dedication to help them unravel the mystery of who the scammers really are and regain their funds.

Scams involving Bitcoin and other digital currencies

Bitcoins are unregulated, and over the past four years, their value has ranged from £1.30 to £751. The bitcoin market is unregulated, and neither a central bank’s reserves nor a government provide support for the currency’s value. Scams of many kinds are feasible, and at Pearl Lemon Legal we’ve seen and dealt with a lot of them.

Property investment fraud

Property fraud often involves con artists promising a “get rich quick” property investment scam and boasting that it can make victims a fortune in real estate.

Typically, victims go to a free seminar on how to invest in property and make money. The con artists may convince them to part with money in exchange for enrolling in a seminar or course that claims to teach them how to do this.

Or, they can be given the option to purchase yet to be built properties at a discount. Victims might decide to invest some or perhaps all of their hard-earned funds in real estate because they believe it is a quick way to build wealth.

Investors are unaware that the land is either used for agriculture or is abandoned. It is frequently unsuitable for development or will undoubtedly be denied planning permission. They can consequently lose every penny they invested.

Buy-to-let fraud is another version, where businesses offer to find, remodel, and manage homes while claiming to generate significant returns from rental income. In reality, the homes are almost basically abandoned, considered derelict and there are no renters.

Wine or fine art investment fraud

Over the years, there have been a lot of clever fine wine frauds. Even if the wine’s worth doesn’t increase, you can always drink it, is a common statement made in these frauds, giving them a somewhat innocent appearance. That presupposes the wine has ever been bought, which in many cases it hasn’t.

Similar scams are often seen in the art world, and this is an area of investment fraud law that is being made even more complex in the face of the rise in the perceived value of digital art and NFT offerings.

It often takes a very experienced investment fraud lawyer with a strong knowledge of the digital world to help clients in these types of situations regain their funds. Fortunately, there are a number of these on the Pearl Lemon Legal team.

Carbon credit fraud

The lack of centralised oversight in the carbon credit sector leaves it vulnerable to fraud. Credits are valued differently in each jurisdiction, and the absence of principal legislation can make it challenging to trace a credit’s provenance.

This could imply that the subject of an investigation isn’t even aware that the credits are fake or fraudulent. In some circumstances, the very existence of evidence of fraudulent credit may be contested. In this case, the help and advice of an experienced investment fraud lawyer is almost always a must.

Pyramid or Ponzi schemes

Pyramid and Ponzi schemes are some of the oldest types of investment fraud and can be some of the most damaging to those caught up in them. As old as they are though, new schemes are seen all the time, and they find new victims every day.

The investment fraud lawyers at Pearl Lemon Legal are committed to helping those caught up in these frauds in any way possible, both on an individual and multi-party level.

Missold investments by a bank or other financial advisor, such as fraudulent bonds or pensions

In our work as investment fraud lawyers, we have gained substantial knowledge of the sophisticated methods investment scams use target investors and how they are operated, as well as how professional misfeasance can result in people losing money.

Due to our experience, we are well-positioned to assist investors and creditors in receiving recompense by holding dishonest businesspeople and professionals accountable.

Expertise Of Our Investment Fraud Lawyer

We could still freeze bank accounts and other assets to recover money for our clients, even when businesses have been set up using false information. Our strategy is founded on our expertise, experience, and teamwork, and it involves tracing and recovering our customers’ assets both domestically and internationally while collaborating with forensic accountants, other professionals, and local, national, and international fraud organisations.

Investors and creditors who have been the victims of investment fraud or scams have a variety of legal options available to them when seeking redress. For our clients, we at Pearl Lemon Legal investigate each of them carefully and consider all potential outcomes.

The corporation that solicited the investment is typically sued by being served with a winding-up petition in order to compel payment of the debt. The matter is referred to the Official Receiver, and after that, our knowledgeable investment fraud lawyers, insolvency practitioners, and liquidators launch an investigation to recover our client’s funds from the company in question or from those who are accountable for the company and the subsequent loss of funds, depending on which party is responsible.

There must be proof of some sort of violation, such as misfeasance, misrepresentation, or unjustifiable enrichment, in order to directly prosecute an individual fraudster under civil law for the restitution of funds they have misappropriated.

We strive to gain access to this information if the investigating and prosecuting agencies have it, typically because the fraudster has a criminal conviction. Remember that the civil standard of proof, which only needs to be established on the basis of a preponderance of the evidence, is less stringent than the criminal standard of proof, which must be established beyond a reasonable doubt.

Our investment fraud lawyer teams can act in class actions (also known as multi-party lawsuits), when the same fraud has been committed against numerous people, in addition to representing individuals and businesses. This implies that a person who is unable to recover money due to the expenses and amount of time required may still have options by joining forces with other people to file a lawsuit.

We take satisfaction in developing case-winning tactics that are customised to the requirements and financial constraints of our customers. We are also experts in locating and retrieving assets both within the UK and abroad. Please get in touch with us if you need superior, reasonably priced legal counsel on investment fraud or any other corporate conflict issue, and our investment fraud lawyer team will be happy to discuss your unique case.