Eden Land Planning - Case Study

I have presented the Directors of Eden Land Planning Ltd with nine statements that I consider to be irrefutable. I have promised to withdraw, with a full apology, any statement that they can factually refute. They have responded by protesting their innocence and accusing me of defamation, but have not yet addressed a single one of my nine statements. The reason is simple - the statements are true. Here are the statements: 1) The Investors Presentation stated: Acquisition cost, £2,200,000. That was a misrepresentation or, in plain English, a lie. 2) The true purchase price was £1,475,000 and the acquisition cost was £1,538,250. ELP inflated this figure by 43%, or £661,750. 3) The investors most probably believed the Investors Presentation figure, because no-one who thought they were being lied to would have invested money in the project. 4) Until Feb 2023 when I learned the true figure, I believed it too, which is why I invested £100,000. 5) The effect and purpose of the lie was t...

For those who like their information presented graphically, here are two diagrams. The first shows the Redruth Eden project using the figures and timescales given in the contractual Investors Presentation document. The second shows the project as actually conducted by Eden Land Planning Ltd.  The Promise: 22 Investors raise a fund of £2.24m It is used to purchase land for £2.1m The land is sold for £3.1m Investor profit, £584,500  ELP profit, £250,500 As per Shareholders Agreement, ELP's profit is taken after completion of sale. The Reality: 22 Investors raise a fund of £2.24m It is used to purchase land for £1.475m but ELP conceals the purchase price. The surplus funds of £661,750 are covertly transferred from Redruth Eden to ELP. Eden's secret retention of 30% of the equity breeches the Entire Agreement between the Parties.  The land is unsold after more than 6 years. The investors have had no returns. Shareholders' Agreement, Schedule 3 states: No Business Plan can be...

UPDATE: August 08, 2024 Eden Land Planning Ltd now has a  Sales & Marketing address:  Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London, W1T 3JH, Telephone: +44 (0) 203 858 7874 Mortimer House is an up-market office and leisure premises operated by Maslow hospitality group. UPDATE: March 09, 2024 Eden Land Planning Ltd was 'advised to move their registered office' and duly did so early in March 2024.   ELP has also moved the registered office of the SPV, Redruth Eden Ltd, (and presumably the SPVs of all their current projects). The new registered address filed at Companies House is: 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX  Capital Office is a company that provides virtual offices at 124 City Road. ELP will have no physical presence there. The rest of this page is out of date but may be useful for reference. The registered office address of both Eden Land Planning Ltd. and Redruth Eden Ltd. is:  201 Haverstock Hill, Second Floor, C/O FKGB, London, England, NW3 4QG...

The Redruth Eden project has been running since June 2018. This page lists the main players and their roles (from my perspective) over the course of the project, beginning with... John Hunt - Mr Hunt is the Regional Sales Director for Highgrove Consulting Ltd. He also acted as a sales agent for Eden Land Planning Ltd for which he used an Eden email address. Mr Hunt introduced the Eden investment opportunity and issued the 'Investors Presentation'. In June 2018, at a face-to-face meeting in Malvern, UK, and in subsequent emails, Mr Hunt outlined and recommended Eden's Redruth project, to which we signed up. From June 2018 until Q3 2021, Mr Hunt was my sole contact for the project. All communication from Eden and their lawyers, ELS Legal, was routed through Mr Hunt. I do not know how many such agents Eden employed. By Q3 2021, the project had all but stalled and Eden's quarterly updates were inadequate and usually late. Mr Hunt said he was unable to answer my questions. ...

(updated, September 2024) In June & July 2018, Eden Land Planning raised £2,240,000 from 22 investors. A typical individual investment was £100,000. Now, more than six years into the project, Eden is proposing to sell the Redruth site for a sum close to the original investment capital. Eden says this will allow them to return 'most of' the investment capital to the investors. This is, of course, grossly inadequate. To keep pace with inflation, £100,000 invested in July 2018 should have grown to £137,562 by July 2024, according to data from the Office for National Statistics: The reason for Eden's dismal failure even to keep pace with inflation is very clear. From the original investment fund of £2,240,000 they invested only £1,475,000 in land at Redruth. They also spent just over £100,000 on stamp duty and legal costs around acquisition. The remaining £661,750 they quietly retained without the investors' knowledge or permission and have been at pains to keep that...

(updated, August 2024) Gentlemen, There follows a clear description of financial and ethical misconduct in your handling of the Redruth-Eden investment project. My figures are accurate to within 1%. Your Investors Presentation document (which is contractual and predates the Shareholders Agreement by several months) inflated the total acquisition costs by  £661,750  or  43%. You falsely claimed total acquisition costs of  £2,200,000 . The true figure was  £1,538,250 . As per the Investors Presentation, on completion of purchase, the unspent surplus should have totalled £40,000 only, of which £25,000 was earmarked for legal fees around the forward sale. On completion of purchase in July 2018, your lawyer, ELS Legal*, transferred the excessive unspent surplus of  £661,750  from their Client Account into Eden Land Planning's Account. You did not seek the investors' permission for this transfer. In fact, you have concealed it for more than six years, just a...

(updated, February 2024) The Shareholders' Agreement (8.2) requires the Company (Redruth Eden Ltd) to issue annual accounts to the Shareholders. This never happened. However, the filleted accounts were submitted annually to Companies House and are therefore public domain. The figures presented here are those lodged with Companies House. The 2019 fixed assets figure, £1,577,340 appears to be the total acquisition cost comprising purchase price, professional fees and stamp duty. As professional fees and stamp duty are non-returnable expenses, it is unclear why they are classed as fixed assets. The true purchase price of £1,475,000 might have made more sense here. The 2019 current assets figure, £660,867, is the sum remaining after acquisition. (I had calculated it to be £661,750, accurate to better than 1%). This is the portion of investment capital that was transferred from Redruth Eden Ltd. to Eden Land Planning Ltd. without the investors' knowledge. As the transfer occurred on...