Julie Meyer files new accounts for calendar 2016 to avoid strike off but they are sheer fiction & show the lie at the heart of her ACE Fund

Yesterday, in order to avoid a strike off at companies house Julie Meyer finally filed accounts for Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Investments Limited – that is to say accounts for calendar 2016! The accounts are fraudulent and there is a real question as to whether she should have been filing them at all – perhaps Andrew Duncan of administrators Leonard Curtis has a view. Let me explain.

The last annual return shows that at November 29 2015 the company had just one £1 share in issue and that was owned by Ariadne Capital Limited ( now in administration and run by Mr Duncan) So was that share transferred? If not why is Julie Meyer still acting as the sole director of this entity given the question marks the administrator has flagged up about her behaviour at ACL. Over to you Mr Duncan.

The 2016 report is, of course, pure fiction and as were those for 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012. They show Julie “lingerie on expenses” Meyer up to her usual tricks.  According to the woman made an MBE on the recommendation of Vince Cable MP, the 2016 accounts were approved by the board on 7 September 2017. Right. So despite a strike off process that started in January, Julie just did not bother filing until now. Whatever you say Ms Meyer.

The sole asset is an investment which has been there from the start. In 2012 it was valued at £750,000 but £90,000 of the assert was “sold” in 2013 and since then it has been in the books at £660,000.  Of course while this is treated as an “investment” it is not your usual investment but instead is described as “a commitment to invest in the ACE Fund. This is due to be sold down to new investors.”

On the other side of the balance sheet are creditors due within one year which are always a tad more than the value of the investments. So that would be a few normal bills plus the amounts that this company is legally obliged to pay to Meyer’s fund within a year. But as it had no cash and indeed only eve r had issued share capital of £1 it was never able to pay.

What happened here is that Meyer set up a shell company which – although it had no cash – committed to invest in her crap fund and was going to do so at once. This allowed her to claim that it had raised the minimum amount needed when it launched back in 2012 when, of course, it had not. But since this company had no cash surely that claim was itself fraud as it was used to get other cash in?

The problem Meyer has now is that while this company has a commitment to invest at a valuation of £7.8 million the real value of the fund, thanks to its crap related party investments and the £3.75 million plus hauled out in fees ( largely to Ariadne) is now not a lot more than £2 million.  So anyone investing at the £7.6 million level will a) almost certainly be buying a commitment from a Julie Meyer related party not putting cash direct into the fund although that is where it would end up and b) sitting on a day one loss of at least 66%! And that is why there is not a cat in hell’s chance of “the commitment to invest” being sold to new investors at all despite what Ms Meyer has claimed in every single annual report.

Meanwhile the ACE Fund is not going to call on the £660,000 it is legally allowed to demand on the spot because it knows that there is not a brass farthing behind that commitment. But that, after five years, the sum owed is still classed as "due within one year" would surely raise eyebrows.

I have referred this article to Mr Duncan for him to consider and also to a number of investors in the ACE Fund as I am aware that there are a number considering seeking compensation for their losses from Ms Meyer.

You can read the 2016 report HERE