John Clifton Davies, a convicted fraudster estimated to have bilked dozens of experience startups out of larger than $30 million by the use of phony funding schemes, has a mannequin new pair of rip-off corporations that are busy dashing startup wishes: A fake funding company often called Equity-Make investments[.]ch, and Diligere[.]co.uk, a rip-off due diligence agency that Equity-Make investments insists all funding companions use.
A neighborhood of the UK, Mr. Davies absconded from justice sooner than being convicted on various counts of fraud in 2015. Earlier to his conviction, Davies served 16 months in jail sooner than being cleared on suspicion of murdering his third wife on their honeymoon in India.
The rip-off artist John Bernard (left) in a present Zoom title, and {a photograph} of John Clifton Davies from 2015.
John Clifton Davies was convicted in 2015 of swindling firms all by the U.Okay. which have been struggling financially and in the hunt for to restructure their debt. For roughly six years, Davies ran a sequence of firms that pretended to provide insolvency firms. As an alternative, he merely siphoned what little remaining money these corporations had, spending the stolen funds on lavish autos, home furnishings, holidays and splendid watches.
In a three-part sequence revealed in 2020, KrebsOnSecurity uncovered how Davies — wished by authorities throughout the U.Okay. — had fled the nation, taken on the surname Bernard, remarried, and moved to his new (and fourth) partner’s hometown in Ukraine.
After eluding justice throughout the U.Okay., Davies reinvented himself as The Private Office of John Bernard, pretending to be a billionaire Swiss investor who made his fortunes throughout the dot-com improve 20 years up to now and who was in the hunt for private equity funding alternate options.
In case after case, Bernard would promise to invest millions in hi-tech startups, solely to insist that corporations pay tens of thousands of dollars worth of due diligence fees up front. Nonetheless, the due diligence agency he insisted on using — one different Swiss company often called The Inside Knowledge — moreover was secretly owned by Bernard, who would invariably pull out of the deal after receiving the due diligence money.
Bernard found a unbroken stream of latest marks by offering terribly generous finders costs to funding brokers who could introduce him to corporations in the hunt for an infusion of cash. Inside Knowledge and The Private Office every closed up shop not prolonged after being uncovered proper right here in 2020.
In April 2023, KrebsOnSecurity wrote about Codes2You, a present Davies enterprise which purports to be a “full cycle software program program progress agency” based totally throughout the U.Okay. The company’s website online not lists any of Davies’ recognized associates, nonetheless the web site does nonetheless reference software program program and cloud firms tied to those associates — along with MySolve, a “multi-feature platform for insolvency practitioners.”
Earlier this month, KrebsOnSecurity heard from an funding seller who stumbled on his shopper had paid larger than $50,000 in due diligence costs related to a supposed multi-million dollar funding present from a Swiss concern often called Equity-Make investments[.]ch.
The funding seller, who spoke on condition that neither he nor his shopper be named, talked about Equity-Make investments began getting chilly ft after his shopper plunked down the due diligence costs.
“Points started to go sideways when the investor purportedly booked a go to to the US to fulfill the group nonetheless canceled ultimate minute on account of ‘his pregnant partner obtained in a vehicle accident,’” the seller outlined. “After that, he was radio silent until the contract expired.”
The seller talked about he grew suspicious when he realized that the Equity-Make investments space establish was decrease than six months earlier. The seller’s suspicions have been confirmed after he discovered the due diligence agency that Equity-Make investments insisted on using — Diligere[.]co.uk — included an e mail sort out on its homepage for yet another entity often called Ardelis Choices.
An organization entity throughout the UK often called Ardelis Solutions was key to displaying the connection to Davies’ former rip-off funding and due diligence firms throughout the Codes2You investigation revealed earlier this 12 months.
Although Diligere’s website online claims the due diligence company has “13 years of experiance” [sic], its space establish was solely registered in April 2023. What’s further, nearly the complete vapid corporate-speak revealed on Diligere’s homepage is identical to text on the now-defunct InsideKnowledge[.]ch — the fake due diligence company secretly owned for a number of years by The Private Office of John Bernard (John Clifton Davies).
A snippet of textual content material from the now-defunct website online of the fake Swiss investor John Bernard, in precise life John Clifton Davies.
“Our steadfast conviction and vitality for outcomes is what makes us stand out,” every web sites state. “We glance after our consumers’ and their firms, we share their ambitions and align our targets to complement their goals. Our consumers know we’re on this collectively. We work in shut partnership with our consumers to ship palpable outcomes regardless of geography, complexity or controversy.”
The copy on Diligere’s homepage is equal to that after on Insideknowledge[.]com, a phony due diligence agency run by John Clifton Davies.
Requests for comment despatched to the contact sort out listed on Diligere — knowledge@ardelissolutions[.]com — went unreturned. Equity-Make investments didn’t reply to requests for comment.
