HJ Collection / Hunter Jones - Refundee is helping UK Investors after the FCA alleges it as a Ponzi scheme

What has happened with Hunter Jones

Hunter Jones and a collection of related companies run by Reece Mennie is a multi-million pound property investment and development company. Their website states that they have raised over £300m from investors, which is now at risk of being lost. 

However, major concerns have been raised and the Financial Conduct Authority is suing Hunter Jones Group and its director Reece Mennie for promoting a multimillion-pound property investment scheme that operated as an alleged Ponzi scheme.

Refundee has been investigating Hunter Jones for a number of months and reporting their actions to relevant authorities. We also attended their marketing pitches at various investor events. We’ve come across a number of clients who were not being repaid and helped them to secure repayments. However, it appears unlikely that repayments will ever start again and UK investors need to take extremely swift action to secure reimbursement before key timeframes are missed. 

The FCA filings state that money was not being used for the purposes investors were told and have instead said that the money was being used “to repay earlier investors”. It then goes on to say “This is a Ponzi Scheme. The investors thereby risk suffering loss or other adverse effect”. 

‍

The most realistic route for reimbursement‍

The majority of UK Investors will be covered by bank reimbursement schemes. Being reimbursed by your bank in a situation like this is almost always your most realistic chance of being reimbursed. This is because:

• In a Ponzi scheme, investor money is laundered and spent so is unlikely to be recovered via insolvency action or in actions against directors
• Banks on the other hand have a clear and established requirement to reimburse people in situations like this. The reimbursement schemes are designed for these exact situations
• There are no up front costs or significant risks to this process. It is not a legal process, but a regulatory process via the Financial Ombudsman Service

However, history shows that banks will not reimburse without a fight. Banks will label Ponzi schemes as “civil disputes” and it is down to the investors to show that this was not a civil dispute. This is where Refundee assists and specialises. We’ve won a large number of cases like this via the Financial Ombudsman Service that has then gone on to require banks to reimburse their customers. We recently won a landmark case on Vashi and overall, Refundee has recovered over £150m for victims of scams of which the majority is for people who lost money to investment scams. 

‍

Why you need to act quickly‍

If you invested on or after 7th October 2024, you need to act extremely quickly to start this process. This is because rules were brought in place that have restricted reimbursement rights for victims of scams. The key requirement is that people who invested on or after 7th October 2024 need to report the scam to their bank within 13 months of their last payment to the scam. We’ve written more about this here. If you miss that deadline, the Financial Ombudsman Service has confirmed it will not find in your favour regardless of how reasonable it was for you to miss that deadline.

Please note, this does not apply to people who invested before 7th October 2024 who are covered by alternative reimbursement standards which do not have such a tight timeframe. 

‍

How to start a case with Refundee‍

Refundee specialises in Group Actions in cases just like Hunter Jones. We are already representing a large number of clients and the more that sign up, the larger the evidence base we can use to achieve reimbursement. 

For Hunter Jones cases we charge on a no-win no-fee basis. There is only one fee which is a success fee and we are charging a reduced 15%+ VAT capped at £10,000 + VAT per case. Of course, you can manage your case yourself for free if you wish to do so. You do this by complaining to your bank and if you are not happy with their response, you can take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service for free. 

Refundee is currently only helping people or companies who invested from a UK account.