| edgeworth properties |
| Edgeworth Properties Investment Fraud Burlington, Ontario |
| 5th of Jul, 2011 by User648875 |
| In 2007, Edgeworth Properties took millions in investments from people in Malaysia, Singapore and the Phillipines. These investments were in so called undivided interests in land in Canada or called Land Banking. We were promised returns of 60, 80 or 100 per cent, depending on if the Area Structure Plans on these lands were approved during 2, 3 or 4 years. We were also promised to be furnished with land titles and a residual value insurance. We never received the land titles and was told later by their Country Manager of Malaysia, that the insurance was worthless. Along the years Edgeworth wrote many letters explaining their predicament in not being able to issue the land titles, such as they had to "split the land into parcels of 80 acres and less", and in february 2009, again explained that " subject to Foreign Ownership of Land Regulations, to issue land titles , they have to submit a plan for residential development for approval first", and then another letter by C Vaughn Minor (President) in 2010 promising 80 per cent returns payout on our investments in June 2011, therefore they would not be issuing the land titles as "title separation work and relevant processess, involving th Alberta Land Tiltles Office, is both time-consuming and ultimately redundant". We have never received land tiltes, we are issued with a worthless insurance, and now Edgeworth, through Donald Hurst, has written to us saying they cannot pay us the money due to hostile takeovers , some regulatory problems in Canada and slow sales, and threatening if the investors dont agree to new terms, Edgeworth will go bankrupt and the investors will lose. |
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I'm a former Edgeworth employee and shareholder here in Canada.
Many of the shareholders here are concerned about our money. Edgeworth also operates a mortgage fund (MIC), and has sold land banking and titled lot products here in Canada.
Frankly, I think the MIC shareholders have the least to worry about, because shareholders hold a secured creditor and mortgage position on the land holdings and would be first in line to collect monies if the Properties division went bankrupt.
In Canada, they have had cease trade orders against 3 of their offerings (Edgeworth MIC, Ellerslie Ridge Estates and Biggs Avenue MIC) in both British Columbia and Alberta. In addition, according to research online the Town of Hinton (Alberta) has actually seized a 10 acre portion of Edgeworth's land holdings due to non-payment of property taxes. The cease trades were issued because Edgeworth did not file up-to-date offering memorandums with both securities commissions (this costs money), and it's evident they do not have the capital required to meet their financial and regulatory obligations.
There has been an insane amount of staff turnover at the company since inception - especially at the middle executive level. One of the regional VPs had a client who pulled title on Edgeworth's land in Camrose, Alberta, he discovered 4 mortgages on the property. When the VP questioned it, he was fired the next week.
Also one of the former VPs re-signed after he was asked by his seniors to sign off on mortgage deals that he didn't agree with. Rumour has it, the MIC has been lending on grossly inflated loan to value ratios, and in mortgage positions less favourable than were promised in the Offering Memorandum.
Canadian investors should consider collecting as much information as possible. Pull titles on Edgeworth's land holdings in Alberta. Have a lawyer review titles, and offering memorandums promptly, and look for any misrepresentations. There may be some recourse in the form of a redemption of shares or even a lawsuit (whether this will stand if the company is in fact facing bankruptcy remains to be seen), but it's worth a try.
Also report them to the provincial securities commissions of whatever province you reside in.
I'm not sure what recourse the Asian investors have, but it's obviously in the best interests of all investors if the company avoids bankruptcy.
If a hostile takeover is possible, as Donald Hurst suggests in that letter, then this is probably the best outcome for everyone. Even though Edgeworth has failed as business model, their saving grace is they do have some pretty good land holdings, and assets under management. It would be best for everyone if a reputable development or investment firm purchased the entire pool of assets, and bought out the investors stakes in project. Hopefully this would at least allow the investors to recover their principle investment, at least. Much more than they would ever receive in a bankruptcy. |
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| Hi, I am also an investor for this Canadian property from Malaysia. My late father actually invested in this property and he passed away in half a year's time from cancer. So you can pretty much say that our family needed the money with 2 young kids still in middle school. The invested had been inherited down to both my mother and I. We were just told the bad news and very disappointed with this turn out. Unlike both comments here, i actually am comfortable in sharing my identity. I am an avid blogger at hazelong.com and also tweets at @haze_long |
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Hi, I am also an investor from Malaysia. Got my sister into investing together with me and feels dead guilty that she is dragged nito this shit !!
Have yet received formal info from Edgeworth of time and venue of their "so call" proposal to us UDI ! Heard from my agent the venue is @ KLGC bukit Jalil on 26th July ! Does anyone know for sure ?
I can only worry while anticipate what they will propose |
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We are also given details and no venue. I would like to warn all investors in Malaysia. Land banking is not regulated in Malaysia .
Do not invest in land banking. My investment in Walton is coming to 6th year and no indications when someone will decide to buy the land. I may have to wait until kingdom come.
The securities Commission say its not under them but under SSM. SSM convieniently says "oh, their application still pending, not approved yet, so we cant help you.Only once approved we can take action. Know that SSM raided Edgeworth in 2009, how come their application is still pending.
Truly Malaysia Boleh.
Sad, but if anyone knows what options investors have, please share. |
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Hi all, my name is boon and my dad bought some plots in 2007/2008 as well and also received the letter dated 27 June 2011 from Edgeworth. What i don't understand is why no news all this while and suddenly there is shareholder dispute and change in Canadian law which affects their business. Wtf ?
What they are not telling us is how come our titles are still not available after all these years ? What happened to our freakin money ? Is the delay due to the Alberta land office ? Was our money actually used to register our names on the title or used for some other purposes ? My gut feel is there is some clear mismanagement going on. My suspicion is further confirmed when i read the sales and purchase agreement ("SPA") prepared in years 2007 and 2008. There was a clause in the 2007 agreement (clause 1.5) which gives the buyer protection by stating that the SPA will be void (and the vendor will refund the money to the purchaser) if the title is not delivered within approx 2 years. This entire clause was removed in the 2008 SPA. Hence no way to take action against them thereafter. I am not sure what options we have as i am not familiar with Canadian law. The SPA is governed under the laws of the Province of Alberta. User 9922 - care to shed some light ?
My view is that we should create more awareness on this issue and get those affected to join us. Maybe there are those who have some legal background or have friends in Canada who may be able to assist. I was also very disappointed with my dad's friend and financial adviser (licensed by SC) who only said sorry and that not much can be done. As a financial adviser, they should have a bit more responsibility. So in future, please trust yourself and don't invest in something you can't see and don't know much about.
To Haze Long (avid blogger) - any way we can create more awarness on this issue - maybe a facebook site ? I also managed to find this website on Alberta which you may contact or send an email - not sure if they will respond ...
http://justice.alberta.ca/contact/Pages/default.aspx?WT.svl=footer
Well, i really hope that we all manage to get at least something back... |
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Hi all,
Understand that the meeting details are as follows and the Chairman, Mr Donald G Hurst has confirmed to be in Asia for the proposal presentation and the details of the meeting will be as follows:
Date Time Venue
July 27th, 2011 (Wednesday) 6.00pm to 8.00pm Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club,
Banquet Hall at Main Lobby
No. 10, Jalan 1/70D,
Off Jalan Bukit Kiara
60000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 03-20931111
July 28th, 2011 (Thursday) 6.00pm to 8.00pm Function Room 1 & 2,
9th Floor Crown Towers,
No. 88, Jalan Pending,
93450 Kuching
Tel : 082-346699
July 29th, 2011 (Friday) 6.00pm to 8.00pm Rafflesia Meeting Room,
5th Floor, Kinabalu Daya Hotel
Lot 3 & 4, Block 9,
Jalan Pantai
88000 Kota Kinabalu Sabah
Tel : 088-240 000 |
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LEGAL ADVICE TO ALL
1) REPORT TO THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, CONSUMER ORGANIZATIONS, MINISTRY OF FINANCE (CANADIAN & MALAYSIAN)
2) USE THE MEDIA TO EXPOSE THE ABUSE, STATING CLEARLY THE NAME OF THE PERPETRATORS (COMPANY NAME, DIRECTORS)
3) FOLLOW-UP WITH AUTHORITIES YOU HAVE REPORTED TO
For some who have invested a large sum, losing the money creates severe depression. It is wise to stay focus on making sure JUSTICE be done. Get over the sad moments and start making as many reports and awareness campaigns as possible.
INVESTORS ARE ENCOURAGED TO LODGE REPORTS.
REMEMBER THE SAYING, "THE MORE, THE MERRIER"?
Good Luck. Catch the Crooks. |
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Hi,
I am also an Edgeworth investor but I reside in Singapore. The Edgeworth office here is organizing investor meetings tonight and tomorrow night to explain current situation and resolution to the investors. I am looking forward to this meeting and will update all tomorrow.
Well, before investing with Edgeworth, I also invested with another landbanking company. The staffs and even the country manager are former staffs of this landbanking company. From what I know, some of these staffs are also affected as they are investors too. They are also pursuing the matter through their own means. I will wait for the briefing tonight. If require, I will also get update from the staffs.
I also hope to I can get back some of my hard earned money...lets pray |
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After hearing from the chairman last night at Singapore investor's meeting, I got the impression that the chairman averted the issue on why the company spend all the money from UDI sales (C$65 million) in Asia for operation cost, marketing expenses, salaries and directors fees instead of paying off the mortgages on the land. He said the company has no money to pay the bank after all the expenses, hence land titles for most of the projects were not issue as the bank has encumbrances over the land still. Also, money were use to fend off "hostile takeovers" which we will never know if it really happened. Why is he using investors money to do all those things???
The proposal offered to convert the existing holdings into a mutual fund manage by an equity partner is also very vague with hardly any details except that it would avert bankruptcy and give investors some hope of "recovering" their investments based on some fanciful projected returns. Its nothing more than just selling more hope and buying themselves more time to avoid litigation.
The company has been grossly negligent in managing investors' money, thus leading to the current situation of liquidity crisis. Money meant for the purchase of land by way of paying off the mortgages for each project were used for other purposes instead. Investors were told over the pass 3 years that title delays were administrative issue and legal hurdles were thus lies as the truth is that they did not make the effort to pay off the mortgage, whether intentionally or negligently and this was never communicated to the investors until now when they are on the brink of insolvency.
They must be held accountable for this negligence. The restructuring option will let them get away scot free in the event the fund eventually end up delinquent as well, since Edgeworth Ventures will be totally out of the picture and the burden has been pass to the equity partner.
Regardless of the outcome of investor's vote on the proposed restructuring plan, those responsible in the decision making process that leads to this horrific outcome must still be taken to task for their mismanagement. Just apologizing is grossly inadequate. We are talking about more than 100+ million dollars of investors money (including EMIC).
You cannot just say sorry and expect people to accept it. |
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I was also in the investors meeting last night in Singapore. I think Kapp above presented the points in a fair and correct way.
1. The restructuring is a way to let the Edgeworth management avoiding the responsbility or any future blaims for missmanaging our money.
2. The status of our investments is quite bad due to the fact there is no funds to set our lands into development stage so any profit potential is unlocked while our investment are very much illiquite to try to get any money back. This is just foreign land guys we do not even have land tiles for!
3. The proposal of bringing a mutual fund trust to me makes sense. As our assets, our UDI investments will be tranformed into units of this fund. Also the fund manager will theoretically be able to bring new investors to fund the development needs of the land so as the profits are realized and we can see some capital back in the form of profits for the first 5 years and hopefully later capital repayments. Let them bring the fund manager here to explain us the features of this proposal.
I will consider their option but this does not mean i m happy with Edgeworth management. I also do not see capital repayment/exit happening soon this way going thru the mutual trust way. We have to be patient. I do anticipate some potential profits in the terms of dividend payments coming out from the Mutual trust for the next 5 years and then a sort of capital repayments on the 5th year. At least this way we stand some chances taking back all our capital. Forget about the returns.
If we instead let Edgeworth proceed the way they are right now without restructuring trying to find financing for individual projects development I am afraid we will see a bankrapcy soon when recovering our money will be almost impossible. Some projects may stand lucky as financing may be secured for them, development takes place and funds returned back to individual investors. See that most of the projects are set up as different private ltd company... |
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This reminds me of the Spa package in Singapore that customers bought and before they can fully utilise the credits, the Spa closed down and then another Spa owner will step forward and take over the package on their Terms and Conditions.
Then the 2nd Spa will also wind up later on and the original Spa is now free of its liabilities.
In the end, it is the customers who are at the losing end.
I think we can really forget about taking our monies back.
If they can really turn the situation, it wouldn't have to end up in such a bad shape.
Better make a police report and see that Justice been done to those responsible if CBT or Fraud is involved. |
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| Tsunami or Domino Theory after Oilpods / Sunshine Empire / PP and upon reading the above comments looks like "another bites the dust"? |
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| I have just receive news that Don is not going to Malaysia. The investors meeting schedule for the Malaysia offices has been cancelled last minute. That is very irresponsible behaviour coming from a Chairman of a company. |
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Hi Kappp, you are right. Heard that the coward Don has chickened out to face the investors in Malaysia after being hammered in Singapore (good job!). Heard they are sending a VP instead over to Malaysia tomorrow - the meeting is still on.
Yup definately sounds like buying time with all the excuses (they should produce proper documents to substantiate how they used/squandered the money if they want us to believe them). My same sentiment, what happened to all the money collected ? The titles are in Edgeworth's name and the cost of transfer is not much - it goes according to scale - see (http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/836.cfm) for more information. The transfer charges are Canadian $500 + $1 (for every $5, 000 increment in value of the property). So it only costs a few hundred canadian $ to transfer the title into our names - not exorbitant.
On the issue of encumbrances over the land, you may want to check your sales and purchase agreement as it states the existing registrable interests on the land - i did not see any encumbrances by financial institutions. Hence may make the transfer easier.
Must be extra careful on the mutual trust fund - i.e. whether there is an independent third party (and reputable). Who is this equity partner ? The absence of an independent third party in Edgeworth's property investment scheme has led to mismanagement of funds - compared to REITS which have a property manager and a trustee for check and balance.
For Malaysian investors, fyi, i have wrote in to Securities Commission - they said its not under their purview. Bank Negara also said the same thing - they said if it's a scam better to report to the police. I don't think the police can do much as it is only a rep office here and the real crooks are in Canada. You may want to try highlighting this issue the Canadian Hi Commission. Their website is :- http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/malaysia-malaisie/offices-bureaux/kuala_lumpur.aspx?lang=eng&view=d
For additional informaiton, there is a general introduction on Real Estate purchasing, rules and regulation in the Investment Partnerships Branch, Department of International Trade website, and you may want to take a look. Basically, the individual provinces generally govern matters pertaining to real property and accordingly applicable laws and regulations vary from province to province. Here is the link: http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ica-lic.nsf/en/Home
While, for information on Land Ownership in Alberta, please visit the web link below, which pertains information on Foreign Ownership of Land Administration in Alberta . It also has the contact information at the bottom of the web page, should you need to contact the Administrations in case you have more questions. The link is http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/586.cfm
In case this link doesn't work, please check the web page of Alberta Land Registration and Services at http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/LandTitles.cfm
You may also be able to file a consumer complain at http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/562.cfm I haven't tried it out but will be doing so.
I agree that we should all try to lodge complains and reports on Edgeworth so that the authorities (especially in Canada) can take notice and maybe investigate the matter further. Can i suggest that if you guys know of your friends who also were scammed to maybe sign in on this website. We could use this as a reference point for the authorities to gauge the extent of how many people have been affected by this. |
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| He's an idiot to begin with, along with the Asian directors who still stand beside Don. I'm wondering how "good" these Asian directors are feeling, in cohorts with the Canadian clown (though not as famous as Ronald McDonald). The Asian directors should be ashamed for selling their Asian investors off. Well, obviously they get well-paid by our hard-earned money. I'm very sure the Asian directors have nightmares in their sleep. |
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No land titles, fraudulent insurance and C65million of investors' money being spent by Donald Hurst as if he had no responsibilities whatsover to the investors. Definitely this is Criminal breach of trust. The country Managers of Malaysia and Singapore has to be taken to task too. Report this bunch of crooks.
There was never any hostile takeover. It is just another of Donald Hurst's spin stories. |
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Anyone in the Edmonton area who purchased an EMIC want to meet up to discuss what these letters from the company mean? I have a gmail.com address and I am going to write my email backwards kydaizd.noj
Put it all together and contact me. |
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The Edgeworth Properties Inc BBB status??? It tells a story too?
http://www.bbb.org/calgary/business-reviews/condos/edgeworth-properties-in-calgary-ab-65849 |
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We just came back from Edgeworth investors meeting in Kuching. Don Hurst was not there, instead sent a VP who can only say, we don't have an answer to so many questions. As investors, we only want to get our capital back, although the VP stated that we may be paid some compensation in terms of interest {????], how true no one here knows. But we have many angry investors in Kuching tonight and majority are the senior citizens who may have invested a bulk of their pensions in the land investment. We hope something can be done to help us get back our money.
by
'Felt Cheated' |
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| Just Got back too. These guys are jokers. They offered to turn the investment into some sort of unit trust "scheme" with vague idea of how it works. Why should we trust them some more and give them more time to play with our money. Report them to the police, to the better business bureau, www.bbb.org, the alberta securities commission. Demand your land titles, otherwise a full refund. Dont allow them to get away with excuses that the land is mortgaged, cannot issue title as the land cannot be owned by foreigners and so forth. Why on earth are our lands mortgaged when we already paid in full for it. Why are they selling land to us when they know foreigners cannot own it? Under the contract, it is stipulated that if they cant issue us with land titles, they have to refund us. Let us all write and demand refund and keep a copy of the letter in case it is needed later. Dont just resign to the fact that these crooks have misused and commited criminal breach of trust. Make them pay for it. Dont let them get away with it. I wont. |
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