In March, Versarien (VRS) announced a £6 million funding facility with a supposed institutional investor, Lanstead. Thanks to my work, AIM Regulation forced it then to ‘fess that actually, if the shares stayed at 53.3p, it would realise only £5.5 million net. But they have not. So how much has the Neill Ricketts promote actually raised?
You know that if a board member farted in a positive way, shameless Neill Ricketts of Versarien (VRS) would rush to issue an RNS stressing what good news this was for his company. And that brings us to today’s AGM.
On 23 March 2020, POS AIM promote Versarien (VRS) announced “ subscription to raise £6 million”. Natch the headline was misleading and indeed Versarien was forced to issue a clarification at a later date. On 16 October, the lies started to reveal themselves big time.
Okay, I know that Neill Ricketts thinks that rules are for little people and since his Nomad is the disgraced SP Angel, which is quite happy to act for proven frauds, it probably does not care either. Maybe the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation need to whir into action?
Oh dear. The following article from the Houston Chronicle is self explanatory. Say what you like about Patrick Abbott but at least he works to generate real sales, unlike anyone still employed at Versarien's (VRS) graphene arm. I have swapped emails with Patrick who denies all charges vehemently.
Readers may recall reading the following paragraph from a letter of 27th July by junior minister Amanda Solloway to fellow MP Bim Afolami, seeking to justify the £5 million loan made by Innovate UK to Versarien (VRS):
Now that Versarien (VRS) has finally published its annual report, I have had a look and drawn out a few highlights. As the subsidiary accounts are not yet filed at Companies House, it is not yet possible to perform the detailed analysis of the results to show exactly how little the Graphene sales were as I did for last year’s results showing that sales were just £26,000. However, I show below an indicative analysis by analysing the elements that Versarien does disclose and it makes for grim reading for the deluded followers of Neill Ricketts.
As things stand, Versarien (VRS) has drawn down the first 40% of a £5 million low interest loan from taxpayer-funded Innovate UK despite demonstrably being ineligible for what is the body's biggest ever loan - indeed admitting in its own annual report that it breaches the eligibility criteria. That is a scandal. But I can now show why this scandal is far worse and suggests that Innovate UK hands out cash to favoured companies on an utterly indiscriminate and un-monitored manner which no assessment of whether its funding delivers any return or benefits for taxpayers. What follows is shocking. A co-conspirator has raised the issue of the illegitimate loan with Innovate UK and has this response from a Matthew Oswin:
I guess under the Tories it is about who you know, not whether you are qualified when it comes to accessing taxpayer cash. It worked for the pole dancing American bimbo who was a "close friend" of Boris when London's Mayor and, as you can see below, with the blues in power, Neill Ricketts of Versarien (VRS) is a man well positioned to open the right doors. Today, his firm confirmed that it had received the first £1.96 million of a £5 million soft taxpayer loan from Innovate UK. Senior Tories such as Alok Sharma and Rishi Sunak were warned that Versarien did not qualify but the loan went ahead regardless. Let's be clear this is the biggest ever loan by Innovate UK by a mile and this is pure and simple sleaze and here is why.
It appears that a second charge has been registered at Companes House by taxpayer-backed Innovate UK for its £5 million loan to Versarien (VRS). This means that if Versarien defaults, taxpayers may well not get all their cash back. That on its own seems a clear breach of Innovate UK rules and a reason why this loan should not be made. But there is worse. In its quite atrocious results today, Versarien itself gives a reason for why the loan application is illegal. Lucian Miers has written to Business Secretary Alok Sharma to flag this up.
To put this in context, even morally bankrupt Nomad SP Angel, the Nomad of choice for fraudsters, does not think this news is financially significant and so has forced ramping Neill Ricketts to alert his moronic investors via an RNS reach not an RNS. Natch, folks who think it’s okay to murder journalists don’t care about facts so Versarien (VRS) shares are up 12% at 46p – an £8 million increase in market cap on news that even the Nomad thinks is financially irrelevant!
It seems that some of Neill Ricketts' biggest fans do not like my investigative probing into Versarien (VRS). This time they are not going after my heavily pregnant wife (as they have in the past) but after me.
Yesterday I published a letter from Amanda Solloway MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, to fellow Tory MP Bim Afolami in which she explained why Versarien (VRS) should receive a £5 million loan from taxpayer-funded Innovate UK, its largest ever such loan. Either this is Tory sleaze, Versarien boss Neill Ricketts boasts of his visits to No 10, or Ms Solloway has been badly misled. As such, I have written to her to alert her to that possibility. The letter is below:
Thanks to Winnileaks, we have a letter from Amanda Solloway MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, to fellow Tory MP Bim Afolami confirming that Versarien (VRS) will get a £5 million loan from Innovate UK even though this is in clear breach of the rules. Is Ms Solloway mired in Tory sleaze or is she just thick as two short planks?...
A number of MPs have now been contacted by constituents about the £5 million loan from taxpayer-backed Innovate UK to Versarien (VRS) which appears to breach a fact of Innovate UK’s own rules. It seems that now, even chancellor Rishi Sunak is looking into the matter as the letter below demonstrates.
I am gravely concerned about the soft loan given to Versarien (VRS) by Innovate UK. It seems to me that rules have been broken and taxpayers cash should not be used in this way. I have, therefore, written to my local MP here in Wrexham, Ms Sarah Atherton, asking her to raise this with the minister responsible, Alok Sharma as soon as possible. I urge you to copy this letter below, adapt it for your local use, and contact your MP too urging him or her to act on this matter at once.
I pointed out yesterday that £5 million of your cash as a taxpayer is going to the serial liars at Versarien (VRS) via Innovate UK when Versarien quite clearly does not qualify for such funding. I have asked Innovate boss Nigel Walker to explain this but he has declined to comment. However, as his tweets below show, Nigel has been very close to Versarien and its corpulent boss Neill Ricketts for three years.
