TONY HETHERINGTON: Leonreed deserves rocket over missing £20,000

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail’s chief investigator on Sunday, battling the reader’s corners, revealing the truth behind closed doors and achieving victories for those who haven’t made money. Read below how to contact him.

DP writes: I am wondering if you can help me as I am dealing with a delayed redemption of my investment bond issued by Leonreed Limited, which also calls itself Leonne International.

Tony Hetherington replies: In 2020 you invested £20,000 in loan letters issued by Leonreed, the company behind Leonne International. You were promised an interest rate of 12 percent a year and the repayment of your investment in July 2021. Well, July 2021 arrived, but your money never arrived.

And exactly where your money went is unexplained. Leonne International is a bizarre company run by a bizarre character, Michael Haston, who has also gone by the name Michael McQueen.

It claims to be ‘a leading multinational private equity firm’, and the detailed brochure states: ‘The Leonne International team has experience proactively identifying, targeting and acquiring profitable companies where value can be added by improving performance providing long-term term capital and operational support to the management teams.’ Nice words, but empty words. It claims to have 12 offices across six continents, with investments in healthcare, media and financial services.

It says it is working with international companies, including Goldman Sachs, KPMG and JPMorgan. Still, the only accounts the company has ever made show that it doesn’t employ a single employee.

Leonreed has not even filed 2021 bills that were legally due in June of this year. On August 30, officials at Companies House began proceedings to have the company delisted, but just over a week ago, on September 30, they temporarily suspended the action. This often means that a creditor has requested that a company be kept alive so that it can be prosecuted, or that an investigation has been launched.

At the time you invested with Leonne International, the company had announced that it was depositing more than £2 million into an entirely separate company that was planning to build a rocket launch site in Shetland.

The Shetland Space Center is run by SaxaVord UK Spaceport, headquartered in Grantown-on-Spey, south of Inverness, and the investment would have given Leonne a 20 percent stake in the project, which would provide launch facilities for commercial satellites.

At the time, the director of the space project, Frank Strang, said he was “happy to have Leonne International as a partner.” Relations have clearly soured since then. They couldn’t have been helped by a warning from the Financial Conduct Authority in March 2020 – just weeks after you invested – pointing out that Leonne was not authorized to offer investments or other financial products, and warning potential investors to be on their guard.

Frank Strang told me: ‘SaxaVord UK Spaceport has no affiliation with Michael Haston or any of his companies. SaxaVord UK Spaceport is not involved in or aware of any corporate bond or non-corporate bond arrangements between Michael Haston (and any of his companies) and its or their investors.’

He declined to say whether the promised £2million had ever reached his company, but he has said all funds that have come in have been repaid and that Leonne has no stake in the Spaceport plan. And this means that all questions now go to Michael Haston.

I asked him to explain why you were not repaid last year when your loan bill expired. I also asked him to confirm that the amount he invested in the Spaceport project had since been paid back. And I asked for details to back up his brochure’s claims about holdings in large corporations. Haston told me he was happy to discuss anything I had asked.

He said, “We’ve done great things here at Leonne and will continue to do so.” And he added: “Let me know how you want to proceed as I am sure you know I will pursue legally inaccurate or misleading information.”

I offered Haston five different times and days we could talk. He said he would email the answers to my questions. When no answers came, Haston told me he had been “extremely busy” but was checking what you had told me about your loan note.

Finally, over a month ago, Haston promised, “I’ll email you the required questions and position on Mr. P early next week.” Of course he didn’t, and he’s been silent ever since. Haston is no stranger to dodgy business transactions and failed businesses. Last year, two management consulting firms he headed were forcibly suspended by Companies House, along with two accounting firms.

And in 2017, Haston was charged with fraud, although the proceedings were later dropped, with authorities announcing: ‘The Crown reserves the right to proceed in the future if more evidence becomes available.’

In the absence of answers from Haston, there are serious questions about the claims in his investment brochure. The questions I put to him now have to be repeated, either by the Insolvency Service, the FCA or even the police. He can’t run away from this.

It cost me £60 to talk to Sky!

ES writes: I have contacted Sky TV to change my contract. I was on hold for over an hour and to my horror I found that I was charged almost £60.

I contacted the telephone company O2, who said that Sky had brought charges. Sky offered me Tesco vouchers which I declined as I paid in pounds not Tesco vouchers.

We are over 70, have a fixed income and this amount is a week of shopping for us.

Overcharged: Sky seems to have kept an old expensive premium number in use

Tony Hetherington replies: I spoke to O2, who told me you had called 0844 241 4141, an expensive premium number from Sky. It’s even to the credit of O2 that if Sky doesn’t pay you back, O2 would.

There is some disagreement about who benefits from the cost. What is clear is that this is an old number that Sky seems to have kept in use while replacing it with a cheaper service.

Sky told me, “As a goodwill gesture, we reimbursed the cost.”

If you believe you have been the victim of financial misconduct, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, no personal answers can be given. Only send copies of original documents, which unfortunately cannot be returned.