When professional services group, Ince (INCE), announced that it was buying its own, subscale, Nomad Arden Partners (ARDN), I suggested this posed such humungous conflicts of interest that it was a duff deal.  Ince, advised by Arden, disagreed. Ho. Ho. Ho.

RentGuarantor Holdings PLC provides a rent guarantee service to tenants wishing to rent property in the UK from the Private Rental Sector. The rent guarantee service is an online service where applications can be managed on a secure and bespoke digital platform designed and built by RentGuarantor Holdings PLC So says the company but ahead of its 8 December listing on the lobster pot c/o Alfred Henry there is already a massive red flag fluttering. In fact there are a number.

I kid you not. Natch there is a very obviously related party stink, the valuation is a joke, the brokers behind it are scumbags and my friend Zak is a clown who doesn’t have a scooby about media and fintech M&A but do not let me put you off. This madness will at least be entertaining, if not rewarding for those daft enough to back it.

In July this year David Sefton was forced to quit Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) after revelations on this website about horrific undeclared conflicts of interest, obscene expenses and other matters. Here we are on January 30^th and after massive pressure about misleading RNS statements, related party deals and other matters I get to claim his scalp again, this time at insolvent Iconic (ICON).

Sorry Neil. It was an attack of commentator’s curse so it is all my fault that you were sacked after-hours yesterday by Openwork from your job managing the Omnis fund. Obviously it was nothing to do with you. The question now is can you avoid getting the tickety-tack today. With no more external funds to be sacked from, having lost your jobs with St James’ Place and Openwork….oh, and Quilter a few weeks back, you might be feeling a little more confident on that score today.

In this bonus podcast, recorded at a Motorway service station, I look at the Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) debacle and THREE massive failings by the Nomad and broker FinnCrap (FCAP). I raise questions about FinnCap it cannot answer but also show why this eiposde flags up the conflict of interest issue which is the cancer destroying the whole of AIM. The home truths will make uncomfortable listening for many.

I started my festive series on The Big Short, namely Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) earlier by providing some wider context about some of the challenges Woodford faces particularly with his flagship fund, the Equity Income Fund, but let’s get into the details of WPCT itself. I’ll start with the ever increasing size of its unquoted portfolio and what appears to me to be a massive conflict of interest.

My Christmas Quiz may have been too clever by half (one entry so far at the time of writing!) but I found it helpful in any event as the research I undertook made me realise that there is massive short potential across the biotech echo chamber participants with Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) being the best example for a couple of specific reasons. Accordingly, I’m doing a few pieces over the festive period outlining my analysis and raising some serious questions along the way for Woodford to answer. To start though one must provide some wider Woodford context particularly in relation to his flagship fund – the Equity Income Fund.

I am still boondoggled by the way that Avanti Communications (AVN) managed to get a refinancing away. You will remember that the cash guzzling satellites business which misses every operational target going was set to run out of what little cash it had left. Amazingly it persuaded its bond holders to agree to accept stacks of interest on its bonds in new ( equally worthless) bonds. And it got the institutional mugs to sign up for more bonds.

Oh dear, the hangover from the Christmas party must have caused a few headaches round at Daniel Cesspit (DAN) but for the AIM listed POS broker life just got that much worse.