Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.
A.T. writes: I have received an unsolicited email from a company called Hoffman Chase.
It claims to be offering high-return investments in cognac, but while it only appears to have opened for business in January, some of its favourable reviews on Trustpilot must be fake as they refer to investments made months ago.
Tony Hetherington replies: Well spotted! Trustpilot had already deleted some reviews for Hoffman Chase, but more remained. They included one from ‘Michael Peters’ who claimed to have invested last August: ‘My collection has already increased in value after only a few months.’
And ‘Christie Reynolds’ told Trustpilot she invested last May, saying: ‘I am pretty new in this market, but I am sure they just gained a very loyal customer.’
Bizarre: Hoffman Chase says investors could lose everything
I highlighted these to Trustpilot, and they have now disappeared. Trustpilot told me: ‘In the case of Hoffman Chase Ltd, since the beginning of the year, our fraud detection software identified and removed 43 fake reviews.’ The cognac company was given a warning and told to clean up its act, but this did not work.
Trustpilot said: ‘We have further evidence to suggest Hoffman Chase Ltd has continued to procure fake reviews.’ Another dozen have now been deleted. Trustpilot has posted a consumer warning on its page about the company, and demanded that Hoffman Chase remove the fake reviews.
The bogus write-ups are just the beginning of the questions though. Hoffman Chase tells investors that their cognac is safe because it is stored in the London Wine Tunnels where it is fully insured. There is no such company as the London Wine Tunnels, but there is a genuine storage company called simply The Wine Tunnels, with facilities in Kent and Wiltshire. Could this be it? Definitely not, according to its director Sarah Labat. She told me: ‘We can 100 per cent confirm Hoffman Chase are not a client of ours. We have never spoken or had any contact with them, and they are not a company we have previously heard of in the wine and spirits UK market.’
And if investors’ cognac is safely stored and insured, how does this explain the curious statement Hoffman Chase displays on a separate website at cognacinvestment.com? It warns no one should invest ‘unless you are prepared for the possibility of losing all invested funds’. What could go so badly wrong investors would lose every penny?
I put this question and others to Hoffman Chase’s sole director. She is Thea Hoffman, from Brighton, and I asked where she acquired her expertise in cognac investment as the only background I found showed she worked for a local estate agent. I also asked about the fake reviews, some of which are copied word for word from elsewhere. Until she took over and changed its name, her company was called Apex Gallery and was owned by art dealer Ryan Marsh. The Hoffman Chase website selling cognac did not even exist.
Hoffman replied: ‘This is extremely confusing. I will review your points and respond back shortly.’ But she failed to answer any questions about her cognac, its storage, insurance, or her knowledge of the business. Bizarrely, her only response has been to blame unknown people who she says have chosen to place fake reviews on Trustpilot. She told me: ‘It certainly seems some have not been genuinely left. We have reported numerous unrecognised reviews ourselves and as you can see, they have been removed.’
Its website boasts: ‘At Hoffman and Chase, transparency is the bedrock of our philosophy.’ But only until someone asks awkward questions, it seems. This cognac scheme leaves a very sour taste.
If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.