Insolvency Service
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Carbon credit company director hit with 15 year disqualification for involving his company in investment scam
Young Erumuse, a director of The London Carbon Credit Company Limited (“LCCCL”), a company that traded selling carbon credits, based in London, has been disqualified as a director by the High Court for a period of 15 years for selling carbon credits as an investment when they had no genuine secondary resale market, and for failing to keep adequate records.
The disqualification regime exists to protect the public. Young Erumuse’s disqualification from 2 September 2015 means that he cannot promote, manage, or be a director of a limited company until 1 September 2030.
The company was wound up in the public interest leading to an investigation into the company’s affairs by the Official Receiver at Public Interest Unit, a specialist team of the Insolvency Service.
The investigation uncovered that between 29 June 2011 and 27 March 2013, Young Erumuse had caused or failed to prevent LCCCL from inducing members of the public to invest in voluntary emissions reductions (or VER’s, also known as carbon credits), for which there is no genuine secondary market. In addition, he failed to maintain, preserve or deliver up adequate company records to explain payments totalling over £2m and receipts of almost £1m.
Commenting on this case Paul Titherington, Official Receiver in the Public Interest Unit, said:
The London Carbon Credit Company Limited was involved in a scheme to deprive investors of their savings by persuading them to invest in a type of carbon credit which has no known resale market. The London Carbon Credit Company Limited purchased carbon credits for an average of £3.50 and charged its customers an average of £110.70 representing an average mark up of 3,163%. It was therefore LCCCL and not its customers, who profited from the VERs. Essentially, investors have lost their money.
The Insolvency Service will not hesitate to use its enforcement powers to investigate and disqualify directors for their role in companies that defraud the public.
I would caution that anyone cold-called and tempted to ‘invest’ in carbon credits, is being offered nothing but hot air and to simply hang up the call.
Notes to Editors
The London Carbon Credit Company Limited (Company No. 07687913) was incorporated on 29 June 2011. Its trading address was at 6 Mitre Passage, Peninsula Central, Greenwich, London, SE10 0ER.
The petition to wind up the company was presented by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovations and Skills in the public interest following an investigation conducted by Company Investigations (Live), another specialist unit within the Insolvency Service which uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 (as amended) to conduct confidential enquiries into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovations & Skills (BIS). The winding up order against The London Carbon Credit Company Limited was made on 27 March 2013.
On 2 September 2015 in the High Court of Justice, Registrar Derrett ordered that Young Erumuse be disqualified for 15 years from 2 September 2015.
Young Erumuse is of London and his date of birth is 10 August 1981.
A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:
- act as a director of a company
- take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
- be a receiver of a company’s property
In addition that person cannot act as an insolvency practitioner and there are many other restrictions are placed on disqualified directors by other regulations.
Further information on director disqualifications and restrictions can be found here
The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.
Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available
All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit (South), The Insolvency Service, 2nd Floor, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London SW1P 2HT. Tel: 020 7637 6404 Email: piu.or@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
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