A FORMER PRESIDENT of Chiang Mai Expats Club in Northern Thailand, who left the town in a hurry and without the customary leaving party has turned up in the UK.
 |
| Picture: CM Citynews – Hall and Prouse |
Alan Hall, an ‘Independent Financial Adviser’ is insisting through his No 2, a chap called Richard Prouse that he has not done what is termed ‘a runner’ following the LM Investment Management Fund Scandal.
He will, said Mr. Prouse, be back to their company PFM International “when the doctor says he can come back”.
Alan Hall is perhaps feeling a little queasy being one of many itinerant IFAs in Thailand, most not registered with the Securities Exchange Commission, who invested their clients’ cash in the Australian managed LM Managed Investment Fund – a feat of Herculean proportions in terms of either, incompetence, greed, lack of ethics, or all three.
Expatriates all over Asia but in particular Thailand have found their pensions have gone up in smoke as financial advisors, attracted by the percentage terms they were offered by LM, invested not just 10 per cent but 50 to 100 per cent of their clients’ money.
Hall has however managed to get off his sick bed and start up another financial advice company from an industrial estate in t’north. He has also, claimed one victim, bought a house and sent his children to school – though the house purchase has not been verified.
His Thai company was not registered with the SEC. His British company is not registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.
Prouse pleads that Hall is a victim too. He says he lost £150,000 in the debacle.
There is a hilarious interview with Prouse here by James Farrell in the Chiang Mai City News. I think James must have a very dry sense of humour.
This is Prouse’s answer to critics who ask: ‘Why the f…k did you put all my life into an unsecured unregistered Ponzi scheme run by an out and out crook?’
 |
| Place your ‘X’ where you believe Mr. Hall’s new office is in Lomeshaye business village. The winning entry will be included in the next version of the video game ‘Nuclear Zap’. Below is a clue. |
“We are still friends with people who lost money in that fund – (which has been) bringing in money for people for over a decade”.
Yes – that is exactly what Ponzi schemes do until they crash.
Nobody ever saw their money of course – unless they were lucky enough to get out.
Anyway I am guessing Alan Hall’s doctor is by his bedside in the Lomeshaye Business Village in Nelson, Lancashire and will give the go-ahead when the coast is clear.
I am puzzled though why a guy who sells medical insurance to expats can’t find anywhere to be treated in Chiang Mai which has one of the biggest teaching hospitals in Thailand.
Prouse contends that he and Alan Hall are being pilloried. He claims the company PFM is continuing:
“It’s business as unusual, Prouse explains, at PFM. “I’ve been sending out updates. All of our clients have been able to contact us. There’s never been any problem to contact PFM.
But the website is down and a message says:
PFM International has relocated to the Seychelles and the web site is currently being updated.
 |
| And he is not alone |
The saddest part, well it would be funny if it were not so tragic, of the article is this:
Writes Farrell: “He says recent remarks have not just hurt the company, but have also damaged his own name. He has been accused of domestic violence, though – he shows me scars on his arm – he says the charges were against his wife for attacking him, not the other way around as has been stated on web forums.
“It was always me that was the victim,” he states.
He also states that his ex-wife had large gambling debts, and that is why someone threw acid into her face.
He was also accused of this, he says. He says he has not slept for weeks due to this kind of harassment leveled at him, all of which, he adds, is spurious and unfounded. There have never been any charges against him for violence, he finally states.
I hope he does not pick his investments like his wives.
First clue is he can't even borrow a shirt for an ad pic that fits properly…
Having scammed Thailand expats, this shyster is obviously targeting his new marks. The UK pensioners are the IFAs easy unsophisticated investor prey. All those soon to be unlocked QROPS are the commission grabbing parasites' delight. Lots of old dears looking for a safe investment for their newly released pension pots will be putty in the IFAs hands, and more retirement funds into the IFAs own banks.
Anyone interested how they work and where the money went should read the LM Investor Victim Centre site at https://sites.google.com/site/lminvestorvictimcentre/home
Any other expats who are IFA and LM victims should also visit the site and sign up.
Actually he was not the founder but he has run the expats show for at least seven years since I've been in Chiangmai. He is a bit like Max Clifford in the way he sells himself and his services. This type of guy is not that easy to spot. The expat club was usually quite crowded and he did a lot of business there.
Give me a bell if you want to know more.
For those affected. Send a copy of this article to FPI, Andy Briggs is the CEO on the Isle of Man. Also send your complaints to Seychelles Government and here are the details:
To: Supervision Officer Munirah Ebrahim
Quote: PFM International, Chiang Mai 096860
email address: munirah@siba.net
also send a c.c. to Supervision & Market Surveillance
email: compliance@siba.net
Thank you for the complaints addresses. About time Hall's dirty deeds were exposed for all to see! He has ripped off and deceived far too many unsuspecting expats and has shown no remorse for having done so. How long will it be before his website (ukexpatspensions.com) is taken down and hopefully he gets prosecuted? What a farce that such an individual who is neither FCA registered nor SEC licensed is allowed to get away with such contemptible practices!
This account raises horrible memories for me. I was also unfortunate to meet this fellow but I was suspicious that he was a charlatan. He introduced me to his side kick Richard Prouse who claimed to be able to write a Thai Will. I gave him a draft document and he returned a ridiculous draft with all sorts of extras. Twice he called me to his his office – to check a phone number! (that we could have dealt with over the phone). I asked why he had added a page to my Will not included in my draft. He said that he had copied and pasted from another will. Nobody in the company had a legal qualification.
I told him to push off and I was not prepared to pay anything to him as I had spent more time editing his work than he edited mine. So I walked out. The whole company is crap and I am sorry for those who lost money with them.
I hope you alert Lanna Care (they have a website) in CM as RP has embedded himself with handling wills of elderly expats. Please alert them.
It's more than just him and Prowse and the real scams were on healthcare and inflated costs for legal services arranged through his contacts. He was a clever manipulator with Thai and farang contacts inside and outside the club. He is genuinely ill in the UK but illegally obtaining NHS services as he claims full UK residence. Even the Passport office thought he did not live in Thailand.
It's more than just him and Prowse and the real scams were on healthcare and inflated costs for legal services arranged through his contacts. He was a clever manipulator with Thai and farang contacts inside and outside the club. He is genuinely ill in the UK but illegally obtaining NHS services as he claims full UK residence. Even the Passport office thought he did not live in Thailand.
I look forward to Alan Hall writing about how to live overseas and protect your right to NHS treatment on demand on return to the UK.
I read the Chiang Mai City News articles with interest. Quite frankly given the difficulties in Richard Prouse’s personal life and the “health problems” his partner /associate Alan Hall has “necessitating” a return to the UK I am sure Richard was very happy to step down from the board of the Chiang Mai Expats Club given his other commitments. I do not know how Richard gets up in the morning. Not only has Richard to keep PFM going but also Chiang Mai Insurance, Pattaya Expat Insurance, Chiangmaisos (the 4th Emergency Service in Chiang Mai), and movetothailand.co.uk whilst also continuing as the business development manager for Chiang Mai Properties , a sponsor of the Chiang Mai Expat Club, and also all the work he does for the Royal Legion as the Poppy Appeal and Membership Secretary, and THEN for the CMBG particularly sponsoring their latest meeting on 8th April 2014 with BCCT and AMCHAM. I am sure Richard will come through and look forward to seeing many photos of him once again with the great and good in the Chiang Mai Mail.
http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/current/features.shtml
Thaivisa are blocking all comments on this as they habitually do whenever Hall is mentioned. One of their "top" moderators lives in Chiangmai and is a mamber of a group of Thais and farangs that support many farang ripoffs. There's money at stake for everyone!
Even Teakdoor seems to be more concerned that the system should allow him to carry out his deeds rather than consider the actual facts of the frauds committed against his victims. Drummond is right to expose these farang fraudsters with the same intensity he has – successfully – drew Noyes.
I've posted a response to his 'sympathisers" on Teakdoor on that forum.
Pattaya Addicts! Of all places seems the most open forum….some interesting threads if you ignore the gynaecological ones..
http://www.pattaya-addicts.com/forum/topic/224657-lm-investment-management-ponzi-scheme/
Prouse may be right when he says Hall is a victim. He now has to explain why he told the NHS that he lived in England not Thailand in order to get NHS treatment.
There is a lively exchang going on on Teakdoor. Posters are putting up details of his scams and drawing attention to the evasive answers tehya re getting from the present president of Chiangmai Expats Club. Adds to the Drummond expose.
There is a lively exchang going on on Teakdoor. Posters are putting up details of his scams and drawing attention to the evasive answers they are re getting from the present president of Chiangmai Expats Club. Adds to the Drummond expose.
Please go to TeakDoor forum….for further details.