Independent Portfolio Managers, the minibond promoter which was hit by a slew of Ombudsman complaints for its role in the collapse of Secured Energy Bonds and Providence Bonds, has gone into liquidation.
When I last reported on the company in late October I overlooked that a creditor had already petitioned to wind up the company. This petition was heard two weeks ago, and the winding up commenced on 14 November.
Interestingly, the creditor who brought the petition against Independent Portfolio Managers was the administrator of Secured Energy Bonds.
The latest progress report of the Secured Energy Bonds administrator (filed June 2018) does not mention a claim against Independent Portfolio Managers, though it does refer to “a number of potential claims [which] have been identified and are being progressed”. The administrator did not give any further details due to the “sensitive nature” of these claims.
We should now see whether the Secured Energy Bond investor action group is right and I am wrong, and whether the Financial Services Compensation Scheme will pay out to those investors who brought complaints against Independent Portfolio Managers over its misleading literature. Though I would not be surprised if it takes the FSCS many months to make a decision on investors’ claims.
At time of writing Independent Portfolio Managers does not appear on the FSCS’ list of companies in default.
A progress update should be due from the Secured Energy Bonds administrator should be due in the next few months which may shed more light on what exactly the debt which put IPM into liquidation related to.
In other Providence Bonds related news, Jersey adviser Chris Byrne has been sentenced to seven years in jail for misleading investors about the risk inherent in Providence Bonds and other acts of fraud.
The court eventually decided that Byrne’s helping the police with their inquiries in Guernsey did not merit any reduction in his sentence.
