The despair triggered last weekend by the vanishing act of a “respected” foreign exchange company has developed into a steely determination by clients to get their money back, writes Natasha Donn from The Portugal Resident.
Today (Thursday) the Facebook page “Victims of Premier FX” was launched, as well as the group of the same name.
Says founder Nick Robinson, the focus is “to help the Premier FX clients get their money back”.
Less than a week since this bombshell exploded across the region (click here), various ‘unexplained’ developments have come to the notice of Premier FX’s ‘victims’.
The message, for example, on the company’s website has changed from:
“Following the death of the founder of PremierFX and sole director, Peter Rexstrew, in June of this year, the new directors have become concerned about the cash flow solvency of the company. Having taken professional advice from independent lawyers and accountants and, mindful of their over-riding duties to the firm’s creditors and customers, the directors have decided to suspend the business of PremierFX and to take steps to put the company into liquidation. In the meantime PremierFX will not transact any new business nor process any customer payments (inbound or outbound). The directors anticipate that the liquidators will be contacting customers once they have been appointed”
to one in which liquidators are not mentioned at all:
“Following the death of the founder and sole director of PremierFX, Peter Rexstrew, in June of this year, it has been decided to suspend trading until further notice and we will not be able to receive or make payments during this time. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause and we will notify you when matters become clearer.”
What does this mean, query the still-emerging throngs of people desperate to get their money back.
A source has told us that this is looking “more and more scandalous”.
Could the ‘segregated client accounts’ have been no more than accounts named ‘client account’ but otherwise running like a regular bank account? This is the fear that is gaining traction.
The ‘new directors’ - founder Peter Rextrew’s two children Katy, 28, and Charlie, 22, - appear to have changed Premier FX company address last Friday. The new address corresponds to that of accountants Tudor John LLP who now have an email from us asking for an urgent update.
We called the company's Surrey base at lunchtime, and talked to an employee who confirmed that Hazel Day was the woman to speak to, but that she was out.
All the Resident's contact numbers are now with Helen Day of Tudor John LLP, thus we have every reason to believe we will get some kind of update today.
In the meantime, a second foreign exchange company that has stepped in to try and help clients locate their money was reportedly on the point of recovering €200,000 lodged by one customer for a house purchase “when someone froze the account”, making withdrawal impossible.
Who was that ‘someone’ if not a liquidator?
These are the questions swirling this Thursday afternoon as last week’s ‘panic’ shows no sign of abating.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
Article courtesy of the Portugal Resident http://portugalresident.com/
From Ed:
For the two directors of this formely well-respected company simply to post a bland message on the PremierFX website, shows Peter Rextrew's children to be lacking in empathy, at the very least.
"We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause and we will notify you when matters become clearer," is not the sort of notice expected when potentially millions in client' funds are unaccounted for and when suspicions are swirling that their father has been playing fast and loose on the financial markets - with other people's money - and that he may have blown the lot before expiring under the surgeon's knife.
Staff at PremierFX conveniently have been let go, including the Managing Director, Nick Jones, who would have been well placed to help sort out the mess.
Generally, people can take bad news but abhor being deceived and lied to.
It's a simple series of questions that Katie and Charlie Rextrew need to answer: is there any money left? If so, when will this be returned to its rightful owners? Were the funds covered by any regulatory insurance? If so, when will the balances be made good.
This collapse seems not to have grabbed the attention of Rextrew's heirs - if it has, they have displayed an arrogant way of treating hundreds of their father's customers, many of whom considered him a friend.
Comments
REPLY FROM Hazel Day (Tudor John) - We are aware that various announcements have recently been issued by Premier FX relating to its current position.
Tudor John’s involvement with Premier FX has been limited to assisting the company with the preparation of its annual statutory accounts, the last such accounts completed being for the year ended 31st December 2016.
We do not have any on-going involvement in the day to day operations of the company nor have we been in contact with the directors for any other purpose than to prepare the year end statutory accounts.
We do appreciate that clients of Premier FX may be anxious about the current situation but we have no information on the current trading position of the company.
Our understanding is that the company is liaising closely with its professional advisers and the regulatory authorities with a view to achieving an orderly wind down of the operations and understand that the bank accounts of Premier FX have been frozen restricting the movement of funds until further notice. Further updates on the Premier FX website should be made available in due course.
If the liquidators has been appointed, all those affected should have been contacted immediately, having no idea what has happened to our money and no recourse has been very stressful and intolerable. It's just unforgivable how we have been treated!
It is fortunate indeed that you did not start your house building project a few weeks ago...
There is a variety of a valid reasons why deposited funds are not 100% drawn down immediately.
There is no valid reason why money held in client accounts is missing and certainly no excuse for the current Directors to cease all communication or, if a liquidator has been appointed, for this company not to have been in touch.
If liquidators have not been appointed then I agree with you, but I understood they had been. If the company is trading insolvently the children and any other directors are in big trouble.
I disagree. As far as we know the company still exists and the two children are directors. They have not said whether a liquidator is involved, has been appointed and if so, what is the name. Judging by the statement on the website, 'apologising for any inconvenience' - they appear disinterested in their customers.
I only hope that the individual client accounts were in fact true client accounts. Regrettably, these accounts will be caught in the insolvency procedures and it will be "time" that will be the damaging factor to most.
Not a "told you so comment", but why did people use Premier FX as a bank or investment company. This was not the regulated remit of Premier FX, as it was simply an FX company - to exchange money from one currency to another at the best rate. A process that should only take at most 48 hours.
Premier FX was simply that, nothing more. It was not an investment management company or a deposit taker. It was never regulated in this capacity.
I have spoken to many individuals this last five days and offered reassurance on the insolvency procedures. However, some that I have spoken to had "invested" capital with Premier FX. I just cannot understand why.
I do really sympathise with all clients of Premier FX, especially those that transferred capital from Sterling to Euros to fund property purchases. The ramifications are horrendous.
I think that all in all, the regulators and the governing bank of Premier FX has a lot to answer for in this event to allow such non regulated activities to occur.
Andrew Brace - Private Fund Management
And if Mike Williams thinks the EU are going to come to his rescue he may as well whistle Dixie as they say.