ScamVictimsUnited.com

HAS ANYONE BEEN SCAMMED BY A COMPANY NAMED ALLIED CHAMP INVESTMENTS LTD OR IN THE SAME/SIMALIAR CIRCUMSTANCES AS BELOW?

IF SO PLEASE CONTACT ME.

Here is a report of the sequence of events relating to the share scam perpetrated by Allied Champ Investments Ltd of 5000 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario relating to my share holding in a Canadian Company.

Sorry it's a bit long!

I was first contacted on or around 01/06/06 by a man calling himself Stephen Richardson of Allied Champ Investments Ltd, who offered to purchase my holding of Specops Labs Inc on behalf of an unnamed client of theirs for an undisclosed price that would be well above the price that I paid for the shares. This was followed up by a fax/email of a Bilateral Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure agreement which he said was necessary as the take-over bid by his client was hostile and would be aborted if the bid become public knowledge. This documents was signed by Arnold R. Kaplan on behalf of Allied Champ.

On 05/07/06 I received a contract by fax/email outlining the full amount I would received for my shares which also showed a vendor bond at 20 % amounting to USD 11,790.00 which I queried with Allied Champ, only to be told that this was the sellers share of the underwriters indemnity and would be held in escrow and returned with the final consideration. After several days of arguing the point with Allied Champ and the receipt of a copy of a guarantee that these funds would be refundable to me following completion of the deal or should the deal fall through, I reluctantly made payment on 02/08/06 to a bank account in the name of Allied Champ Inestments International Limited maintained with Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong.

I also made some investigation into Allied Champ Investments via the Internet and found their website which I thought appeared to confirm their legitimacy.

Later in August Allied Champ Investments informed me that my holding in the Canadian Company also included Warrants entitlements of two shares for each I held exercisable at USD 2.25 each until November 2007. I tried to check this with the company transfer agents who could not confirm or deny their existence so I declined to take up any further shares as I was unsure of their existence and could not raise the necessary funds to participate. Allied Champ Investments did not seem perturbed by this and did not press the point or put pressure on me so I let it drop.

Allied Champ then informed on 24/09/06 that the IRS would not release the payment of the takeover proceeds as I had not completed forms W-8 BEN for capital gains exemption as a foreign national and that they would be covering the fine for this omission but needed payments of an additional USD 25,713.00 to cover the capital gain at 30 % which they were lodging with the IRS as a block payment on behalf of all shareholders.

A man calling himself Stephen Baker of Allied Champs corporate tax dept. then advised me of this and guaranteed verbally that I would be able to recover these funds from the IRS as a W-8 BEN was completed and lodges with them before any payments were made. Stupidly I made the additional payment of USD 25,713.00 on 21/09/06 to the same Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong bank account as before.

Stephen Baker then called me on 26/09/06 and confirmed that everything was in order and the final payment would be made to my bankers on 29/09/06. After checking with my bank several times during the week following this date I tried to contact Allied Champ on various telephone and fax numbers I had used during the transaction but was unable to contact anyone. Upon checking their website that was now non-existent I began to realise just how stupid I had been and that it was just a scam to rip me off.

I hope the above is helpful and hope it helps other people from being scammed out of thousands like me!

If anyone has any information on Allied Champ please contact me.

Regards
Terry Hawker

Hi Terry,

I'm afraid I'm in the same boat regarding the above company. Pretty much the same course of events involving a company called Material Technologies. Original shares signed over, warrants followed by W8Ben monies up front.

Contacts for me were initially Mark Stephens, Mike Murray, then finally Steve Baker. Funds promised, all paperwork received to support....no monies forthcoming - major out pocket for me...very stupid I know.

Must be some way of getting our money ???

Hedgerow Sam

Hi Hedgerow Sam

Sorry to hear that you've also been stung and know what you're going through. Can't believe how stupid I've been, especially as I worked in the financial sector up until a few years ago. I bet they're making a fortune the thieving *******s!

Don't look like there is any way of getting any of the money back, no one seems to be able to help as the companies involved in the scams are non-existant and are therefore not regulated.

I've even contacted the Bank where the money was sent and they have refused to assist me as they won't investigate anything unless you go the country in person (this is why they probably opened the account in that country!!!).

What I can't understand is why the banks opening the accounts are not held partly responsible for not getting the correct ID etc when the accounts are opened.

I've also contacted the Sun newspaper Cashflow section (charles.rae@the-sun.co.uk) regarding the matter and even though it is a bit embarrassing and I feel a complete fool, I need to pursue the matter at present and are prepared to speak up.

They probably won't come back to me, but you never know.

No pressure but if you also sent them your story it may help.

Hope you get some help, have you contacted the FSA in London? who should alert the Police etc.

Let me know if you get any joy.

Regards
Terry

Hello again,
Thanks for your message. Yeh, I can't believe I've let myself get caught. I too am in the Finance field & have been dealing in shares for many years. I broke all my cardinal rules on this, mainly because I think the people contacting me seemed so professional & thorough.
The process started way back in jan this year & although I had some misgivings on the way, I found it hard to believe that they would go to so much time & trouble if it was a scam. Must be one of the most sophisticated & therefore most dangerous ones around.
I am so embarassed at my ineptitude, I'm not sure I would want to go too public eg. tabloids, but I have reported it to the SEC & will also tell the FSA. Not sure what else to do. Switchboard at Allied still seems to be working, but nobody ever rings you back. Somehow need to completely expose the firm & send them & their directors into orbit !

Hi, Hedgerow Sam and Tel H,

I seem to be a victim of the same 'Hostile Takeover of Spec Ops' scam with individual contacts in a different order than quoted. In my case the Warrant quoted were 4 for 1 at 50 cents. My last contact with the company was with Mike Murray (on Tax issues) around 3rd October when I made my final payment having had email and telephone contact with the company while on holiday abroad in September. Later that week I realised that the web site and telephone were dead and started to panic. I'm out about $41,000.

The story originally seemed plausible as did the web site and paperwork, however, I now see Allied Champ Investments in a host of regulation warning web sites - but not fraud!

I have made a contact with the Ontario Securities Commission (inquiries@osc.gov.on.ca) and hope that this may help in some way. Perhaps you guys can add your stories to the list. Refer to Mr. Denis Donnelly, Lead Inquiries Officer.

Regards

Titanic

Hi there Titanic,

Thanks for your reply. I've just returned from a weeks hol & picked up your note - yeh I can still afford holidays albeit local !! I'm owed a lot more than you. If this ain't fraud, then what is ?!

I will contact the Ontario guys & add some further weight - hopefully we can get this crowd shut down. What amazes me is that you can still get through to their reception desk, to a normally very cheerful helpful lady. The guys you want are never available. She promises to get them to phone you back, though they never do.

Will update on any news.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the information on your experiences with this company. I am in the finance and accounting industry also.

I originally purchased shares in American Card Tech. for USD5.00 each thru a broker firm called Dreyfus Securities. Those shares were not tradable on the open market, and therefore now worth nothing.

I was contacted by another company called Grand Capital Inc. to purchase my shares (in behalf of their client) for 85% of its original value, buy me shares in Circuit City at a reduced price of USD20.00 to cover the original purchase cost, and in turn I sell the shares in Circuit City (CC) at the market value of about USD25.00 netting a gain. the catch is that I need to open a trading account with them with USD3500

I did some web research on Grand Capital. They have their own website (eventhough the site design was not very professional). They referred me to an association called 'Offshore Investors Protection Association' to verify their legitimacy and trustworthiness. They also gave me their broker licence numbers.

To do further checks on the transfer agents, I was also given a reference to contact "International Transfer Agents". In turn, that association cofirmed the legitimacy of the transfer agent I remitted the money to.

I reluctantly paid the transfer agent, whos bank account is in Hong Kong, the invoice value of USD3563.00. since then I was informed that the shares have 20:1 warrants attached to them worth over $50,000.00 that if I take up, will be worth nearly $300,000 on the open market. If I decide to take up the option, I am supposed to pay for those warrants next week. I thought I'll contact a solicitor in the USA to verify the legitimacy of the whole deal. with my initial discussion with the lawer, he suggested that this sounds like a scam and he needs few days to investigated, and I am not to pay any further money until he does the investigation (at a cost of course). My case is still in progress.

After talking to the solicitor this morning, I decided to search the web for Grand Capital Inc. The only link I found was in this website. A person was contacted by Grand Capital to scam $15.00 off him for a similar deal. I wish the cost to me was $15.00 not $3563 plus a possibility of further $50,000.00

I hope this story will help someone else..

Hi Hedgerow Sam, Titanic and Naive

Hi guys, just to let you know that my local Fraud section from the police are visiting me on 27th March 2007 to take further details regarding the scam.

They have asked me to provide them with any other names of Victims in order to get more information.

If you are willing please provide me with your full names, addresses and tel numbers.

I understand if you don't won't to provide your details, but the more information the police have the more likely that they will investigate the scams.

It has also come to light that the selling brokers could be involved as I also own shares in many of the companies mentioned that you all hold i.e. Material Technology. I have also been contacted by a gentlemen through scamvictimsunited.com who held shares in the name of Cardxx which I also hold.

This might be just a coincidence but it all seems a bit dodgy to me.

I look for to hearing from you and hope that you are all getting over the scam as much as possible.

Regards
Terry Hawker
Bexleyheath, Kent

Hi Tel,
Thanks for the update, I had pretty given up any hope of further meaningful follow up on this affair. It has made me very nervous about more communications with Allied's name attached.
However whilst there may still not be any chance of getting our monies back, it would be nice to nail the people involved in this scam, otherwise I guess they will disappear & resume their operation again somewhere else. It still hurts when I think of all the conversations I had with Mike Murray et al & how convincing & genuine they appeared to be ! I was contacted again recently by another company regarding shares in Farsight - I was a bit quick in telling them to get lost & forgot to get their names, but it sounded like a similar scam.

Hedgerow Sam,

It isn't a good idea to post your address on a public forum such as this - you never know who reads these forums, and what they might do with information such as this.

I have to agree . . . that is why I went back and edited the post for sam.

Hi Hedgerow Sam, Titanic and Naive

Apologies for asking for your full names, addresses and Telephone numbers as thinking about it I agree with 'maninthestreet' and 'admin' that it's not a good idea to state these details on a scam site.

I will advise you if the meeting with the police was of any help. Not holding out much hope but they might surprise us!

Regards
Tel H

Thanks guys.
I was thinking about it over the weekend & realised I was a bit hasty in releasing these details.
Seems I am not learning by my mistakes!