I doubt very much that the contract that he gets everyone to sign has been run by a solicitor to ensure that it protects him in any fashion whatsoever. Besides, in the case of fraud, that contract would be null and void anyway as he would be in breach of that original contract.
Does anyone have any more info that has been issued to "investors"? It'd be interesting reading to find out the current state of lies.
There's plenty of "facts" going around - the below is things I've confirmed from clients themselves or messages from I4U/Declan.
- I4U are FCA Registered (but no one can provide an FCA reference).
- The FCA are "helping" with the current situation.
- Declan Nowell applied to the FCA - they advised 12 months of business records and operation is required to be fully authorized/accredited.
- Once FCA is registered I4U will not be on the FCA search system for 1 year. (When you become authorised your added automatically).
- People have handed him thousands/tens of thousands without so much as even meeting him in person.
- Clients have been given possibly more than 1 contract ( I would assume a contract and T&C's).
- Letters from the FCA have been shown to people / received by the FCA - Apparently, client money is being held for months not 7 days.
- An FCA licence was not needed at first as only clients with over £150-250k of assets
- The platform used is FCA registered (not I4U / Declan)
- Although everyone had separate accounts the "central trade" was made overall client accounts so that the same percentage gains
- Declan has been telling people that any financial business can start without FCA Authorisation as long as you apply for a licence in the first 12 months