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.