Reader Post of the Year ( 2019) – another warning about Pacific Tycoon/Davenport Laroche

I have had my threats for exposing the fraud that is Pacific Tycoon, a fraud that companies such as ADVFN (AFN) and others in UK financial services have been prepared to promote despite my exposes. It seems that Pacific now operates under two names, a reader (Daryl) has the whole scam banged to rights and relayed his experience on our comments section. This post merits a wider audience. Over to Daryl…

If you ever receive a sales call from Pacific Tycoon or Davenport Laroche, they're one of the same although they'll claim they're completely separate, the long and short is they're no more than 21st Century Gangsters telling you to let them purchase containers on your behalf and leasing them out for your, promising high returns: either fixed 12% per year or fluctuating returns averaging 30% per year. Be cautious!!! They will use pitches like China is the manufacturer of the world, there is huge demand for containers, that Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche is part of some associations, that they are willing to meet up with you face to face if you travel to their Hong Kong head office, and that there are client references, etc. Below is the detailed description of this Ponzi Scam.

This is how your investment will go, no matter how many containers you buy or for what price the returns for the first 12 to 15 months will peak at about 25% to 27%, then plateau. After about 18 months or so when your income will fall through the floor within months. (If you went for the 12% guaranteed you'll still end up in the same boat as you're only guaranteed 12% if there is 12%)  Ted will tell you they've moved along with the rail road project and are now in an area with no demand. I questioned him that surely the customer has to return them to the original place of hire? All he did was avoid any answer saying he'll see what he can do. Months will pass with no call and after chasing him he'll tell you he has a wonderful deal !! Trade all all your container for what you paid for them and buy some more, plus an extra amount so he gets a some more money out of you. I know a few investors that have taken the trade only to find the revenues only last about 4 months max before you're back to no income, but as these containers are second hand there's no buy back option, which he won't tell you you'll loose when you do the deal.

If you hold out thinking you'll be OK when the three years are up because you'll get your money back, you'll be disappointed. Firstly clause 12 in your contract... the containers have to come off hire first. Pacific Tycoon will promise to get you an "Off Hire List", firstly there's no specified time frame for them to produce this. secondly you think when I do get the list as I'm not getting any income they can't be on hire.. wrong they'll be on contract for another  3 to 4 years on "As and When the Customs Uses Them Bases" Technically on hire, but no income, and the customer will never use them because they don't and never have existed!!

Pacific Tycoon will use their Lawyer in Brisbane, a Mr Robert Cunningham of Paxton- Hall to hide behind and delay this process. I am sure the lawyer can not of carried of all the compliances with the Proceeds of Crime regulation in regard their dealings with Pacific Tycoon, i.e verified ID checks, requiring passport and utility bill etc.

Davenport Laroche is even worst with the buy back, they will just go off grid, not answer calls, if you turn off your caller ID they will, but only then a promise of a call back that you'll never get.

If you Google Pacific Tycoon and any variant of scam, financial fraud, investment fraud, you get over a 100,000 results, for Davenport Laroche about 20,000. 

What income you may be entitled to may also be difficult to get to your bank account. My bank has refused a number of payment as they don't come form Pacific Tycoon or Davenport Laroche, but some random account usually from Cambodia. I have had to take my contract to the bank to prove I'm not money laundering, which I'm sure Pacific Tycoon and  Davenport Laroche are also probably guilty of.

Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche are a Ponzi Scheme based in Saigon, Vietnam. Between them they have an office in HK, UK, Dubai, and Australia  to meet clients. Pacific Tycoon case it is at a different address from the virtual address published on the website. Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche staff pick up clients at the airport or hotel and take them to that office. They always ask clients the exact date and time they are coming to visit Hong Kong, so as to book flight tickets to get there from Vietnam and fill up the empty office. There are also two part-time local Hong Kong staffs. Hong Kong staffs are innocent, staff from Vietnam have to tell them that they come from Shanghai office, and Hong Kong staffs believe that. There’s probably nobody in Shanghai.

Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche do have Hong Kong phone numbers (land and mobile) beginning with 852, which are just SIMs they bought in HK and bring the phone to Vietnam. Salespeople call clients using voice-over-IP (Skype) to save costs and to hide where they are calling from, the phone calls I receive can come via, Switzerland, Russia, France or Germany, obviously routed through some discount carrier and to hide their location.

Ted Mallory (just an alias) runs the boiler room in Vietnam, about 30 staffs. They get telesales leads from email campaign in Viral Planet, The Executive Club, Adalsa, Investor Guide, Galvan, etc. The biggest markets are UK and Australia. Since the beginning of 2012 until now, revenue per month is about 1 million US Dollars, I estimate that after deducting costs, Ted makes about 400 to 500K per month for himself.

Ted is paranoid about his identity. Staffs don't know his real name. All we know is he's an old British guy, tall, brownish blond. He may also have a Filipino passport. The apartment to run the office is always rented under his Vietnamese mistress' name Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thanh. Moritzclear Research S.A. and its company bank accounts are under his Filipino female friend’s name Michell Empleo Dela Cruz. Once your money is wired to the Taiwanese bank Shanghai Comercial and Savings Bank, it will then be wired to Michell’s account in Cambodia, and then transferred to her Vietnamese bank. Once the money comes to Vietnam, Michell will fly to this country to withdraw the cash. Thanh will escort her all the way to the banks, and take the money back to the boiler room office.

As a rule, client leads from USA, France, China (including Hong Kong), Vietnam, and a few other countries are immediately taken off the list. Regarding USA and France, Ted is scared off because there were official warnings against Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche; regarding China and Vietnam, he is smart enough not to create any noise in the local market, so that the police don't pay attention. If a client has British nationality, but live and work in Hong Kong, he'll be taken off the list, because Ted doesn't want him to visit the HK office randomly and finds nobody. In addition, clients are told not to send and receive funds from a US bank account, regardless of his/her nationality.

A powerful sales pitch is to tell potential buyers to contact client references; i.e. those who already invested in Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche, for opinions. In total, there are only 10 client references, who are victims themselves. They are kept happy, receive their returns from this scheme, and they are paid a flat fee each time someone agrees to buy after emailing/talking to them. 

Another sales tool is to mention that you will receive container ownership certificate, with a container number (BIC code). Well, you may want to go into this link and check if the last digit is correct: http://www.bic-code.org/calculate-the-check-digit-online.html. A client told me he checked and the last digit doesn’t match, or that further investigation about the correct code shows that the container doesn’t belong to PT. Anyway, I have seen a junior staff printing out a lot fake ownership certificates in the Vietnam office, from a template file. All she needed to do is to insert the details like numbers and owners and then print them out.

Another tool to convince clients of Pacific Tycoon is to mention that it is a member of Hong Kong Shipowners Association and Container Owners Association; and that is is ranked platinum by Dun & Bradstreet. The truth is, it is only listed as an associate member, NOT full member, in HK Shipowners Association and Container Owners Association by paying those websites a fee. The same apply for Dun & Bradstreet website, it paid that website for the platinum ranking thing. On the other hand, one should question why this company is not listed in The Institute of International Container Lessor: http://www.iicl.org/about/members.cfm. Another way to be extremely cautious is how this company is created:

_Parent company Moritzclear Research S.A. was incorporated in Belize

_Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche registered in Hong Kong, contracts with clients under Singapore law

_The bank to receive clients’ money is in Taiwan

_Website registered in The Philippines: http://www.showsiteinfo.us/sites/pacifictycoon.com (scroll down to About Site, click on the tab Whois)

In Vietnam, Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche advertises job vacancies under various fictitious names (San Severino Holdings, Cloisters House, DataFlow, etc.), since the company itself doesn't have any business registration, and staffs don't have any real labour contracts with the company. In February 2012, Vietnamese police raided Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche office in district 4, but then were bribed to ignore Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche. I think it was only the poor local policemen who raided, not police at higher level like Economic Police or anything like that.

It is important to note that Ted Mallory has been hiring an IT company to hack and bring down websites with bad publicity about Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche, and he successfully brought down www.absoluteinvestor.co.uk and www.boiler-room.orgs.

When it s impossible to bring down a website, Pacific Tycoon lets its lawyer a Mr Robert Cunningham of Paxton- Hall to contact the investment forum requesting comments to be removed, saying it is libel. Thus, many comments about the truth of Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche by ex-employees on, for example, The Motley Fool were removed.

My reply to any accusation of threat of libel will be sue me then , to do so they will have to prove in court that what I said is liable, to do so, one Ted Malory will have to give evidence and prove he is who he says he is, and the only argument to disprove the liable is to prove the business is genuine, no of which they can or will do!!

To re-affirm that Pacific Tycoon and Davenport Laroche are a Ponzi Scheme. They will keep perpetrating this scam, praying on the weak and the innocent unless forced to stop by making as many people as aware as possible.

Ends.