Scam: EverGreen Solutions’ Christmas tree investment
Last week, someone asked me about a London-based company called EverGreen Solutions. The company claims to plant Christmas trees and asks retail investors to pay for the tree seedlings. EverGreen promises to look after the trees and sell them. Investors would get a profit of at least a 25%. Except that they won’t, because it’s a scam.
Each seedling cost £12. After four years, by which time the trees would be 1.5 metres high, EverGreen promises a “buyback guarantee” of £15 per tree. If you were prepared to wait eight years, EverGreen is offering £28 per tree. Unfortunately by then, EverGreen will be long gone, with the investors’ money.
EverGreen’s website includes a quotation from the Daily Mail:
“The stock market rises trees grow bigger, the stock market crashes trees grow bigger. The ride isn’t as exciting , but it is steady.”
It sounds reasonable. But a Google search for the quotation gives only two results, neither of which is the Daily Mail. One is EverGreen’s website and the other is christmastreeseedlings.uk (a website registered in November 2014 from the address Christmas Tree House, Christmas City).
EverGreen’s website gives more cause for concern
At the bottom of EverGreen’s website is the note that, “EverGreen Solutions is the trading name for Evergreen Farming & Forestry LTD”. The company was registered in November 2013.
The director of the company is Scott Levy. He is also director of a company called Evergreen Solutions Management Limited, that was registered in October 2014.
The fact that these companies were formed so recently means that they have no records of successful investments. Of course that’s true for any new company, but it’s hardly reassuring for potential investors.
The company’s website provides little information. There are photographs of Christmas tree seedlings in a field (which could be anywhere):
Here’s a picture of EverGreen’s banner hung over the fence (presumably to convince potential victims that the trees really do belong to EverGreen):
And a couple of shops selling EverGreen’s Christmas trees that look like they come from an episode of Only Fools and Horses:
A company video shows a tractor in a field and a banner hung over the gate. And a close up on a label that suggests that the trees belong to Yorkshire Christmas Trees Group (yctgroup.co.uk):
But there’s no mention of YCT group on Evergreen’s website and no mention of EverGreen on YCT’s website. I’ve asked YCT for a response, and will post it here when they reply.
UPDATE – 13 July 2015:Yesterday I received the following email from Yorkshire Christmas Trees:
From: Hilary Mayes
Date: 12 July 2015 at 13:28
Subject: Evergreen
To: reddmonitor@gmail.com
Good Morning Chris
Further to your recent email.
I can confirm that Evergreen are indeed a Yorkshire Christmas Trees customer.
Evergreen have purchased a substantial number of seedlings over the last two years
The seedlings are wholly owned by and the sole responsibility of Evergreen.
Regards
Hilary Mayes
Director
Yorkshire Christmas Trees
EverGreen is offering an investment, but the company is not registered by the Financial Conduct Authority. The small print in a company brochure states that,
Nothing in our literature should be taken to be interpreted as financial advice or advice that can be construed as a regulated activity under the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority and we will not be held liable for you entering into any activities or opportunities at your own free will.
The fact that the company is not registered with the Financial Conduct Authority should be enough to keep any potential investors well away from EverGreen Solutions’ phony investment scheme. But there’s more to come.
Enter the boiler rooms
The company’s address is Canary Wharf, which is perhaps an odd place for a small company selling an investment in a few Christmas trees. Regus offers virtual offices at this address for as little as £99 per month. The same address has featured a few times on previous REDD-Monitor posts about boiler room operations.
Various companies cold called retail investors to persuade them to invest in EverGreen Solutions’ Christmas trees. Among the names of these boiler room operations are Axis Capital Services (more on Axis, here, here, and here), Heathbury Trading, Zeno (or Zing) Consultancy, and Wade and Vere (more on Wade and Vere, here, and if you like looking at boiler room websites, here’s an archive).
There’s one more: Castle Corporate Services. Castle Corporate Services is listed as one of EverGreen’s partners in the company brochure.
Castle Corporate Services was linked with the Capital Alternatives boiler room network. Castle Corporate Service was listed as a receiving agent this 2013 brochure from Plantation Asset Management Limited.
When journalist Khadija Sharife visited the company’s office, here’s what happened:
“Castle Corporate is based at 5 Chancery Lane, a virtual office in London. When the author visited the relevant floor at Chancery Lane, the receptionist, a young women, had never heard of the company. On learning I was a journalist, she rectified her statement saying the secretary of Castle Corporate was out to lunch as were the executives. When she saw that I was planning on staying, having settled down with a book, she claimed that the secretary and executives were not in the building. This was later amended to the executive being in Dubai and no secretary being around, before finally – after being pressed for a secretary name, admitting there was no secretary and she had only a mobile number for the executive.”
According to Duedil, there’s a motion to strike off Castle Corporate Services. About time too.
In September 2014, Action Fraud warned about investments in Christmas trees:
Investments in Christmas trees have previously been unheard of but the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has received reports that suggest Christmas trees are being offered as a commodity for investment.
Whilst we cannot comment on viability of investment in Christmas trees, it is our concern due to this being promoted by applying same tactics that we have seen in investment fraud; cold calling, high pressure sales, promise of high returns etc.
Anyone who has handed money over to EverGreen Solutions, or had any contact with this company or its telemarketers, should contact Action Fraud:
