Harlequin Property (SVG) Limited is a land owning company based in St Vincent. It has been threatened with a winding up petition from circa (sic) 100 investors, who are represented by a long term antagonist of the Harlequin group, Gareth Fatchett, now of Waterside Legal. Having failed in an attempt to reach an out of court settlement with Mr Fatchett and his clients, {{more}}and in response to this threat to the business and the pensions/investments of thousands of Harlequin clients, Harlequin was forced to take advice and, after careful consideration, has decided to enter a Notice of Intention to Make a Proposal.

Contrary to some reports, a Notice of Intention is not an admission of bankruptcy. The wording of the procedure, which is part of a brand new Act that St Vincent only brought into law this year, can be misleading to the unacquainted; however, the Act does in fact state that, for its purposes, “insolvent” does not mean “bankrupt”.

A Notice of Intention allows the company a maximum of six months to work with a professional trustee to assist it to sort out its business affairs. Throughout this time, the company is protected from legal action, such as the threat from Mr Fatchett to appoint a liquidator to fire sell the assets of the Resort. After this period, a plan is put in place, subject to creditor consent, and actioned with the necessary protection in place.

Harlequin has entered this procedure to protect the company, its thousands of investors, and its hundreds of employees. It has done so with the knowledge of the Vincentian Government on the understanding that Harlequin can and will come out the other side. Harlequin will not stand for threats by those seeking a preferential pay out for a tiny percentage of investors at the expense of thousands.

Lastly, we note that a far larger group of Harlequin investors than Mr Fatchett represents has expressed interest in pursuing a class action against him and his firms for detrimentally affecting their investments. We believe this speaks volumes.

CORRECTION: On page 18 of our edition of Friday, October 7, 2016, we carried a story headlined: “Insolvency proceedings begin for Harlequin SVG,” in which we stated that Gareth Fatchett, a partner at Waterside Legal, was Ames’s legal representation in the UK. That is incorrect. Fatchett is not Ames’ legal representative. We apologize for the error and any confusion it may have caused.