TONY HETHERINGTON: Linc Drinks is not a brilliant investment

Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace researcher, fighting readers’ corners, revealing the truth behind closed doors and winning victories for those left out of pocket. Find out how to contact him below.

Quietly: Ex-footballer Sam Williams is listed as the owner of Linc Drinks

HE writes: I received an email offering a Linc Drinks loan bond with 12% interest. Is this another case of an investment too good to be true?

Tony Hetherington replies: Yes! The email you received says that Linc Drinks is raising over £3 million through its bond issue and that the company is estimated to be worth £150 million in December.

It says the drinks business is “perfectly positioned to be acquired” by a major drinks company such as Diageo. Complete rubbish!

What the email failed to highlight is that these bonds will be converted into Linc Drinks stock. But the company isn’t publicly traded, which means the stock can’t be converted into cash. The message does not explain the terms of the conversion or indicate whether investors have the option to withdraw their money.

It claims to be from an investment company called Millbak. There is a genuine company of this name, but it is also a victim of Linc Drinks. His boss, Stuart Gibbons, was persuaded to become a non-executive director and help him raise funds, only to find that his and his company’s name had been misused.

The scammers behind the email set up a “shadow” version of Millbak with a millbakcapital.com website.

This stated: “Millbak Ltd is owned by Citrus Fund Platform, regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.”

Linc Drinks stated that Millbak boss Gibbons “is the founder and owner of our regulated client onboarding partners, Citrus Fund Platform, which is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission”.

Impressive claims, so I asked the Jersey regulator if Citrus could put its name on the bond offering and if Gibbons actually owned

Citrus? The FSC did not respond so I went to Jersey’s capital St Helier and stood outside the FSC HQ with evidence but the watch dog refused to meet me.

An email said it would “review the information.” Since then, the only communication from the FSC has been to ask me to hand over all documents while refusing to comment or even say what Citrus could do under the terms of its registration.

My trip wasn’t completely wasted when I entered the impressive offices of Citrus. I asked to see Gibbons. The receptionist had no idea who he was and said no one had heard of him.

So I contacted him in London and told him that, according to Linc Drinks, his investors were “incorporated” by Citrus in Jersey. He said, “One hundred percent wrong.”

He told me he knew “nothing about” the millbakcapital website and said, “This is outrageous.”

So how had he been dragged into any role with Linc Drinks? Gibbons told me, “I know Amit Kochhar, he’s my connection to Linc Drinks.”

If the name Kochhar sounds familiar, it’s because last Sunday I reported that his cannabis company Cannadex defaulted on its loan bonds. Now here it is, with a new bond offer.

Linc Drinks is owned, on paper, by former Aston Villa footballer Sam Williams, but his own office in Mayfair didn’t seem to recognize Williams’ name and didn’t call me back. Kochhar was no longer talkative.

Gibbons said, “I’ve issued a cease and desist (letter), so I expect the millbakcapital website and the reference to me or Millbak and Citrus to be removed.”

He has also managed to lock up £30,000 in the investment portfolio and this is being paid back.

It is unknown what will happen to the money already invested in Linc Drinks’ mis-sold bonds.

If you believe you are a victim of financial crime, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email [email protected]. Due to the high volume of inquiries, personal responses cannot be given. Please send only copies of the original documents, which unfortunately cannot be returned.