Imperial Consolidated Group

Imperial Consolidated Group (ICG) ran three UK based companies which provided investments in a fund called the Alpha Fund.   The Alpha Fund offered investment in the after the event insurance market largely in relation to conditional fee agreements taken out in support of personal injury litigation.   The key feature of the Alpha Fund was that it purported to offer a secure capital investment together with annual returns of 15%.   In the UK, the Alpha Fund was adopted and actively marketed by several product providers including Zurich/Allied Dunbar.   In turn these product providers marketed the Alpha Fund to a large number of IFAs.   The cases we have dealt with to date suggest that in many cases the Alpha Fund was marketed by the providers to IFAs as low risk.   In turn many IFAs marketed the Alpha Fund on a similar basis to investors.

In fact it turned out that Imperial Consolidated Group was operating fraudulently, and that the money going into the ICG companies was being disbursed by the directors and inter-company loans between the ICG companies were never going to be repaid.   The high returns promised by the Alpha fund were not sustainable and all the ICG companies are now in administration or liquation.   Current indications are that investors will receive only a small percentage of their investment once the asses have been realised.   Several of the directors of ICG are facing criminal charges and the SFO is investigating the running of the ICG companies.

For UK investors the primary remedy may well be against Financial Intermediaries who advised that an investment in ICG was low risk, high return and safeguarded capital.   In many cases, depending on the risk profile of the investor, this might have been negligent advice.   Where investments were made in 1999 or early 2000, investors may run the risk of losing the opportunity to pursue a civil remedy unless claims are pursued immediately.

If you are an investor who has lost money by investing in the Imperial Consolidated Group and would like advice on your potential remedies then please contact Patrick Selley (pselley@bevans.co.uk) or alternatively telephone 0117 923 7249 for an initial free consultation.

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