Hopeless ... opeless ... Operus

"The board" that was formed in March 2011 was intended to have 4 members - only 3 ever joined. John Chart only attended the first meeting of "the board", and thereafter had nothing further to do with it. A fourth person was approached, but declined to join. So "the board" only ever really comprised of two people, Joe Sinagoga & Robert Wakefield, with the latter very much the front man. In "the board"'s initial March 2011 newsletter, they introduced their raison d'etre as being:

"To 'manage' creditors so that everyone gets repaid. The board members will ensure fair play and reliable repayments to all investors."

For starters, "all investors" meant ex-CBS investors, so they were most certainly NOT representing all investors. And what was meant by "manage"? The real purpose of "the board" was to keep disgruntled C&B disinvestors in-line and to prevent them from taking legal action against the partners so that they could continue with business. And that's not supposition, that's fact. An integral part of this "manage"ment was to try and sell 5-year PNs to all ex-CBS investors who held toxic PNs, an exercise in which they of course failed - a number of ex-CBS investors refused to sign, and some went on to take legal action. Hence the ongoing bankruptcy of Liam Collins & David Bone Jnr by Alistair MacLean... and if it were not by Alistair, there are plenty of others waiting in the wings to force the same outcome.

Joe Sinagoga & Robert Wakefield are merely mouthpieces of Liam Collins. In an e-mail to Richard Paris on 15/1/2011, Robert Wakefield states:

"I have never persuaded anyone to invest in Collins & Bone or any other business - not even in stocks & shares or managed funds. I merely shared my own experiences with you. Any decision as to what to do with your money was always yours of course. Please also remember that I was always only 'another investor', not an employee, director or even commission agent."

Contrast this with texts lifted from "the board"'s newsletters:

Now is a great time to start investing in this market.

If you would like to earn generous commissions from referring or introducing investors to the new-look Collins & Bone, where the investment is 100% protected, please contact one of us. You can also earn very good commissions from sourcing properties. You will be paid by St. Giles Asset Management Limited, not Collins and Bone.

Robert Wakefield has a sizeable investment in C&B, and has every interest in making sure that C&B is kept afloat, no matter how that is achieved. It was for this reason that "the board" members were actively trying to recruit investors to the po-IVA camp in the form of e-mails and phone calls, even though they had no legitimate right to be using investor data in this way ... clearly, this was not their role as investors, but as Liam Collins's proteges. And I suspect that they have received/are recieving preferential treatments wrt paybacks in one shape or form or another ... again, something that we will be asking the bankruptcy trustee to investigate.

And it is worthwhile taking a look at St. Giles Asset Management, and the other company that shares the same address - Operus Limited, Unit 4, 36 Queens Rd., Newbury, RG14 7NE. Operus Limited is a new company incorporated 10th November 2011 with 3 of its' 4 directors as follows:

Joe Sinagoga
Robert Wakefield
Richard Anthony Hawthorne, who on LinkedIn decribes himself as "property developer and investment manager", and was previously a sales manager at Castle & Gatehouse Ltd.

On the wysi website there is the following statement:

"Operus investments Ltd. specialise in property development in the private residential sector of the Uk, offering housing solutions to a number of Government Agencies. Their investment clients can capitalise on a bespoke guaranteed rental income from day one with a property investment which has been designed for high performance, whilst minimising risk."

The website is http://www.operus.co.uk and is still under construction.

So if Liam Collins wants to believe in conspiracy theories, that there is a company waiting in the wings to pick-up/take over C&B assets on the cheap, then Operus Limited could be a candidate. But there again, I'm not going to dwell on trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

To the directors of Operus Limited I say be careful ... you are being watched!

The Editor