Beaufort

Beaufort Client Campaign: Update 5

It has been several months since our last update. In that time, we understand that almost all Beaufort clients have had their assets returned by the special administrator, PwC. Please let us know if you still do not have access to your assets and we will do our best to assist and expedite the process. Full members of ShareSoc can post comments or questions on discussion forums, here: https://www.sharesoc.org/forums/forum/beaufort-campaign/ We are still pursuing HM Treasury, in an effort to have the Special Administration ...
Post Date: March 8, 2019 Read more

Lehman Collapse, Labour’s Employment Plans, Audit Reform Ideas and Oxford Biomedica

There was a highly amusing article in the FT recently by their journalist John Gapper explaining how he caused the financial crisis in 2008 by encouraging Hank Paulson, US Treasury Secretary, to resist the temptation to rescue Lehman Brothers. So now we know the culprit. Even more amusing was the report on the previous day that the administrators (PWC) of the UK subsidiary of Lehman expect to be left with a surplus of £5 billion. All the creditors are being paid ...
Post Date: September 16, 2018 Read more

Brexit, Abcam, Victoria and the Beaufort Case

Another bad day for my portfolio yesterday after a week of bad days last week when I was on holiday. Some of the problems relate to the rise in the pound based on suggestions by Michel Barnier that there might actually be a settlement of Brexit along the lines proposed by Theresa May. This has hit all the companies with lots of exports and investment trusts with big holdings in dollar investments that comprise much of my portfolio. But a really ...
Post Date: September 11, 2018 Read more

Beaufort Client Campaign: Update 4

Following much hard work by the creditors' committee, PwC has now drafted an official distribution plan, in line with our previously stated understanding. Full details of the plan can be found here: https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/business-recovery/administrations/beaufort/distributions.html It was approved by the creditors' committee on 13th July and by the Court on 26th July. I attended the court hearing - more on that later. It is anticipated that the vast majority of client assets will be transferred to another broker in September, without loss or costs payable by ...
Post Date: August 10, 2018 Read more

Stopping Another Beaufort Case

Readers are probably aware of the administration of stockbroker Beaufort, how PwC are running up enormous bills to the disadvantage of creditors and how they also claimed to be able to charge the bills against client assets under the Special Administration Rules. See here for more information if you are not familiar with this debacle: https://www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/beaufort-client-campaign/ I hope all stock market investors have already written to their Members of Parliament on this topic, not just to get the Special Administration Rules changed ...
Post Date: August 9, 2018 Read more

Warning to Beaufort Clients

It has come to ShareSoc’s attention that certain claims management companies (CMCs), may approach Beaufort clients, offering to help you recover your assets. We would advise extreme caution if you receive such an approach. The latest information from PwC, as agreed by the creditors’ committee, can be found here: https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/business-recovery/administrations/beaufort/latest-news-and-update.html As you can see from that statement (and the plan summary referred to by it), all bar fewer than 10 individuals with accounts that include cash in excess of £400,000, will have the costs ...
Post Date: July 6, 2018 Read more

Protecting Yourself Against Administrations

Investors now know that when your stockbroker goes into administration, your assets are not secure (or “ring fenced” as your contract with them often says) because they can be seized under the Special Administration Regulations by the administrator to pay their costs. This has become clear from the Beaufort case. That means many investors are facing losses because Beaufort client accounts, like most stockbroking accounts now, were nominee accounts with the shares registered in the name of Beaufort. There are two possible ...
Post Date: June 8, 2018 Read more

Act Now to Protect Your Assets!

We hope that, by now, you have read about the threat to all your broker accounts, including ISAs and SIPPs, that the events at Beaufort Securities exposes, which has been widely reported in the press (e.g. see this article in the Sunday Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/05/26/fbi-sting-picasso-scam-collapse-beaufort-could-destroy-trust/ ). If not, please visit our campaign page for a full explanation. Now is the time for you to act, to protect your own interests and remove the threat that an administrator could raid your accounts to recover ...
Post Date: May 28, 2018 Read more

Beaufort Client Campaign: Update 2

Campaign co-ordinator Nandish Haria and ShareSoc Director Mark Lauber attended last week's meeting for creditors and clients of Beaufort Securities (BSL)and Beaufort Asset Clearing Services (BACSL). The meeting was organised by Administrators PwC and took place on May 10th. Nandish has prepared detailed notes of the meeting, which you can download here: Notes of Initial Beaufort Client_Creditor Meeting 180510 These notes contain important information for clients of Beaufort, which the administrator disclosed at the meeting. As disclosed in our campaign update 1, a key campaign ...
Post Date: May 19, 2018 Read more

Beaufort Client Campaign: Update 1

Campaign Status Our campaign was only launched one week ago, but has already generated a terrific response. We now have over 140 campaign members signed up. Unfortunately this has created a backlog of membership requests to process, so please bear with us if you have not yet heard back from us and accept our apologies for any delays. Thank you also for the generous donations to the fighting fund, which will help towards any legal costs that may be incurred defending Beaufort ...
Post Date: May 10, 2018 Read more