An Invest 123 client who lost a large portion of her pension in Dolphin Trust was offered €10,000 in compensation last month if she agreed to sign a form to indemnify the broker from further claims or liability.
n email that Invest 123 owner Eamon Lynch has since claimed was sent to the woman, who is close to retirement age, by an employee without his knowledge, sought indemnity for named directors and employees, including Lynch, as well as for another of his firms, IPS Financial Advice Ltd.
The woman, who was previously a council worker, has lost €75,000 since transferring much of her €120,000 local authority pension pot into unregulated loan notes.
In 2014 she was advised and facilitated by Invest 123 to transfer her pension fund from a defined benefit scheme and invest a third of it in Dolphin Trust and a third in a similar property loan note sold by UK firm Colonial Capital.
German property investment group Dolphin, which paid over €750,000 in commission to Lynch’s IPS in 2016 alone, has since imploded.
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Colonial has also collapsed owing investors £11m after the High Court in London disqualified its two directors for “dishonestly” securing funds from investors.
The woman, who suffers from a long-term illness, said she had struggled to get information on the state of her pension fund but was seeking access to funds to help her deal with mortgage arrears.
The compensation offer was emailed to her the day before she was due to appear in court connected with the repossession of her home.
The email stated: “I accept payment of €10,000 compensation in respect of any potential loss incurred by me through the liquidation of Dolphin / GPG groups of companies and all related investment vehicles in respect of my investment in Dolphin Loan notes through my PRSA Pension.”
“I specifically indemnify John O’Rahilly, Eamon Lynch, Kieran Sammon, Invest123 Limited and IPS Financial Advice Limited from any other claim or liability,” it read.
“I do so, in full understanding. I acknowledge that neither I nor any other person claiming through me shall have any further entitlement to make claim against the above named individuals and companies,” before ending with a space for her to sign above her pre-typed name.
She declined to sign despite receiving a follow-up phone call.
She is now being advised by law firm Coleman Legal about a multi-party action it is planning in relation to Dolphin.
In response to detailed questions, Lynch said “neither I nor my company were aware of any offer being made to our client. It would be incorrect of you to state that I or my company made any such offer”.
He said “no offers to settle any matters with individual clients have been made by myself or our company”.
He added: “An individual member of staff may have taken upon themselves to help alleviate what was presented as a difficult and immediate financial/legal position, but that is not and cannot be a company position.”
After a follow-up request for clarification of this last statement, Lynch responded: “I am saying that [a named staff member] acted independently. Yes the offer was made using company facilities and had it been accepted, [The staff member] would have made arrangements to honour the offer. It is not company policy to offer any client preferential treatment.”
The staff member did not respond to attempts to contact them.
