Solicitors’ letters are flying like confetti, politicians are wringing their hands with concern and financial brokers are forming support groups.
ut the one set of voices that are not shouting loudly about the Dolphin affair is that of ordinary Irish investors whose money has been lost in the German property cesspit.
This newspaper has received plenty of correspondence in recent weeks about Dolphin, much of it from solicitors warning of the dire consequences if we write about their clients.
But one handwritten anonymous letter that was received last week succinctly captures the sense of abandonment felt by the Dolphin victims.
“Myself and three friends have lost nearly €265,000 and I fear we won't get a penny back on our outlay,” said the writer in a neat script. “It’s important that people who perpetrate things like this should not get away with it without warning others as to the dangers out there.”
The writer said it was “hard to take” seeing people involved in the investment scheme driving “fancy” new cars “whilst I have lost all my savings”.
“I cannot sleep at night with worry. I have lost everything,” the letter read.
The cold reality for many, including the letter writer, is that with all the blame and counter blame swirling around in the Dolphin case, it will likely take years for liquidators, lawyers, judges and regulators to get to the bottom of it all. In the meantime, the investors will live their lives knowing things could have been better with the nest egg they worked so hard for years to save.
I cannot sleep at night with worry. I have lost everything.
Others caught up in the German property mess have been quick to both defend their part in the saga but to also point out how they are acting to help people like the letter writer.
Financial product provider Wealth Options, a firm regulated by the Central Bank, with a registered address at Unit 2a Elm House, Millennium Park, Naas, Co Kildare, bristles when it is sent any questions at all about the Dolphin affair. It points out that it had no part to play at all in the affair and refers all questions to Wealth Options Trustees Limited (WOTL), with a registered address at 1c Elm House, Millennium Park, Naas, Co Kildare.
Last week, a firm called M.U.T 116 Ltd, with a registered address at 1c Elm House, Millennium Park, was placed into liquidation by the High Court. This was one of two companies into which money from people like the anonymous letter writer above were paid on its way to build a German property empire. M.U.T. 116 itself was owned by Tulipfield Ltd, with a registered address ℅ Wealth Options Trustees Limited, Unit 1a Elm House.
But, of course the promised property empire is now dust and the status of the money that was placed in M.U.T 116 (and another firm just like it) on behalf of investors is for the liquidator and others to try and solve. Elm House would seem to be a good place to start asking questions.
Of course, WOTL, which took over from Cork-based Dolphin International Group as the administrator of the scheme in 2018, told this newspaper last week that it “did not provide any advice to end customers or investors” in the Dolphin (or German Property Group as it is now known) products.
The Dolphin loan notes, it said, “were presented to professional financial brokers who have a multitude of products to choose from when considering the needs of their clients. Brokers conduct their own due diligence, assess the risk appetite of their clients and recommend the most suitable products to meet their clients’ needs”.
So what of these financial brokers whose clients’ money ended up in the Dolphin web?
Last week, a group of 40 of them from all around the country, announced that they had formed a group. The GPG (German Property Group) Redress Group was formed, they said in a statement, by 40 broker firms, to support their 1,180 clients (the anonymous letter writer amongst them, no doubt) who invested more than €65m in the Dolphin Trust investment.
“Like our investor clients, we are all utterly dismayed at the developments with Dolphin Trust/GPG,” the group said.
What the group did not comment on, of course, is the Sunday Independent report last month that revealed that a dozen financial brokers had shared in commission payments from Dolphin of more than €2m in just one year – 2016.
All of these financial brokers are regulated and licensed by the Central Bank. So what questions is the regulator asking on behalf of our anonymous letter writer? Well, the problem is that while the brokers may be regulated, the Dolphin products were not and so the Central Bank has, to date, stayed on the sidelines.
And the politicians have stayed out of the bun fight too. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar looked decidedly uncomfortable in the Dáil when faced with a series of questions on the matter from Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty – not least questions about how the Government plans to bring these types of products, of which there are many more out there right now, under the regulatory umbrella.
“I am afraid I am not aware of all, or even many, of the facts in relation to this issue and I am reluctant to give an answer that may be incorrect,” said the Tánaiste.
“However, I want to express my sympathy to those affected,” he added.
No doubt the anonymous letter writer has slept more soundly since.
