Eden Land Planning - Case Study

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...

I produced this page in response to an observation that I had not made sufficiently clear the relationship between the companies, Eden Land Planning Ltd. and Redruth Eden Ltd., and also the distinction between tangible assets and company shares. Thus, the information here is not new but is intended to clear any confusion of terms. In July 2018, the directors of the parent company, Eden Land Planning Ltd., established a new company, technically a Special Purpose Vehicle, (SPV), called Redruth Eden Ltd. with themselves as directors. Initially, Redruth Eden Ltd. had no assets. There followed a period of fund-raising, based on an Investors Presentation document. 22 Investors contributed a total of £2,240,000. Prior to acquisition, the total assets of Redruth Eden Ltd. peaked at £2,240,000 in the form of money held in ELS Legal's client account. The Investors Presentation stated: Acquisition costs, £2,200,000, Professional fees, £40,000. Immediately on completion of purchase, the total ...

If you invested £100,000, then, according to Eden Land Planning's prospectus: £1,786 would go towards Professional Fees, and £98,214 would be used to purchase land at Redruth, Cornwall. That is what you agreed to in July, 2018. What really happened to your £100,000 was more like this: £1,786 went on Professional Fees, and £2,823 went on Stamp Duty, £65,848 was used to purchase land, and £29,542 was retained by Eden without your knowledge. Remember, all this happened 2 months  before Eden asked you to sign the Shareholders' Agreement. If challenged, Eden will argue that, in signing the Shareholders' Agreement, you agreed that any surplus money after completion of purchase be transferred from Redruth Eden to Eden Land Planning. But, 2 months before the signature date of the Shareholders' Agreement, Eden's Lawyer, ELS Legal, had receipted your investment of £100,000 and told you by letter that "these monies" would be used to purchase land, (not two-thirds ...

(updated, October 2024) In June/July 2018, Eden Land Planning Ltd. raised £2.24 million from 22 investors on the strength of a prospectus document called the Investors Presentation. The Investors Presentation falsely stated that the Acquisition Costs were £2.2 million.  Eden used only two-thirds of the investment fund to buy land, completing the purchase in July 2018. Eden and their lawyer, ELS Legal, led the investors to believe that the entire fund (except 2% fees) was applied to the acquisition of land at Redruth, Cornwall. The effect and purpose of grossly inflating the stated acquisition costs was to make available to Eden nearly one-third of the investment fund without the investors' knowledge (Best estimate, £661,750).  The investors were never informed of the true acquisition costs, nor the true purchase price, nor (of course) the large uninvested surplus. Two months later (September 2018), through ELS Legal, Eden issued a Shareholders' Agreement for signature. Eden ap...

I produced this document in March 2023. I am a private investor in the Eden-Redruth project. The document analyses the finances of the project and highlights Eden’s covert appropriation of a large portion of the investors’ tendered funds. Eden Land Planning Ltd. launched the project in 2018 but certain facts pertinent to this analysis did not come to light until February 2023, hence the late timing of the document.    Key Facts:  In 2018, Eden Land Planning Ltd. issued a prospectus called the Investors' Presentation against which they collected investment funds totalling £2,240,000. There were 22 investors.  The Investors' Presentation stated that the acquisition cost of the site at Redruth was £2,200,000 which included £40,000 for professional fees.  This would have left only £40,000 in the fund, of which £25,000 was pre-allocated for legal costs around the forward sale of the site. The investors were thus led to believe that approximately 98% of their money wo...