(PAPER EDITION STORY)
Somewhere between 9am and lunchtime last Friday a ‘well-respected’ currency trading office in the Algarve ‘vanished’. Website content was pulled, phones disconnected and staff who had only recently assured clients that all was well suddenly became uncontactable. The next 72-hours were gut-churning for scores of people who simply didn’t know which way to turn: hundreds of thousands are at stake, if not more. The Resident is aware of a number of ‘high end’ clients who say they have “massive amounts” tied up in Premier FX. The question now is “where is it all?”
Technically, every client account should be secured. This is what people were assured when they chose PremierFX of Almancil, run by former city trader Peter Rextrew.
The problem is that Rextrew died on the operating table last month, and the seamless service his ‘family and team’ were said to be focused on started unravelling within hours of the funeral last Thursday.
As far as the Resident can gather, an audit described by managing director Nick Jones as “quite normal under these circumstances” discovered a situation that was clearly less than normal.
Jones who himself has a small personal fortune tied up in the company is now out of a job, and despite assuring a number of favoured clients that he would be in touch with them “very soon” has by all accounts dropped off the radar.
So too has Cathryn Evans, another key element of the now ‘suspended’ Premier FX.
As for the new directors Rextrew’s children Katy, 28 and Charlie, 22, they have also failed to give any indication of what is going on.
The Resident managed written contact with Charlie on Saturday. He repeated twice: “I will be in touch on Monday” and conceded that ‘not knowing for a whole weekend’ was probably very difficult for clients but ‘as he said before’ he would be in touch on Monday.
Monday came and went. So did Tuesday. As we wrote this text, Charlie Rextrew, his sister and everyone else connected to the company were staying mum.
Meantime, families, couples and single people were going through all possible permutations of personal hell.
There is the couple who have already paid a 10% deposit on a ‘dream’ €200,000 house. The €200,000 is with PremierFX, which as its website told them on Friday, is no longer processing any customer payments.
If this mess isn’t sorted out soon, the couple will lose their deposit, and possibly their chance of that dream home.
The husband told us neither of the two are sleeping, and that his wife “can’t stop crying”.
Then there is the British man married to a Portuguese woman who told us he has a “massive amount” held in PremierFX.
As opposed to using the company for transfers, this particular client was using it as a kind of bank, drawing money from his account whenever he needed it.
“I don’t want to give you a specific amount but imagine selling a Victorian house in Oxfordshire, pension lump sums, inheritance money and savings. We have bought a nice little rural house here, we have had work done, got it almost how we want it… so we have a nice amount still left for what we thought would be a nice comfortable early retirement…”
Clients like this could be the ‘unlucky ones’ said another who has been with PremierFX for the last four years.
“I am seriously worried”, he told us. “If everything was being held in secure, designated accounts as we were all lead to believe, then why would the company have to go into liquidation?
“That’s the part that doesn’t make sense.
“Something has happened and I can’t see that it will all work out. I haven’t been able to sleep either. Yes, I was hoping to retire on the money I had there… I really can’t see that’ll be possible now…”
Some clients have already sought legal advice, others are banding together – and into the maelstrom has stepped a second ‘forex’ company suggesting it may “just may” have a good line into Barclays Bank, where Premier FX segregated client accounts are held.
As a source for the company told us, “if people can show us proof of what they had in their accounts and move their business to us, we should be able to go in and get their money back for them…”
But it’s all “ifs” at this point. As one client remarked: “I don’t think many people will have any kind of paper trail proof as all our details were on the Premier FX site which has since been taken down.
“On Thursday I had €11,000… on Friday I saw €0.00 and then the site was down. This is all just horrible”.
As we wrote this story a former business associate of Peter Rextrew got in touch to say he was “quite sure” Premier FX was in “A1 condition”.
If that is the case, why the decision to cease trading?
Five days on from the ‘bombshell’ that has left so many people’s lives in tatters, and no one seems to have the answers.
The phones are off at Premier FX ‘head office’ in Reigate, Surrey, while the operation the company opened in Mallorca apparently has a large shipping company “aggressively seeking the return of its money through solicitors”.
The nightmare should develop over the next few days, if only for the appointed liquidators to finally get in touch with Premier FX’s traumatised clients.
Until then the only certainty is that yet another company that assured its customers that ‘nothing could possibly go wrong’ has shown that words are essentially just combinations of letters that can be made to disappear at the touch of a button.
Online story as it developed:
Panic is spreading over social media as clients of Almancil currency exchange company Premier FX discover the business has ceased trading following the death of its founder, and is effectively holding on to their cash (For updates to this story, see below)
Writing on the Facebook group “Expats in Portugal”, Bryn Paling of Bristol says: “I have just received an email from Premier FX and due to cash flow problems they have decided to suspend the company and put it into liquidation.
“We are about to complete a property purchase in the next 2 weeks and have over 200,000 pounds held by Premier FX and have been advised that they cannot make any customer payments. We have already paid the 10% deposit which looks like we may lose as well. We have to wait for the liquidators to contact us. Looks like our dreams have gone up in smoke”.
Commentators, beyond giving commiserations, have posed all the usual questions: Is the business FCA registered… If so, will Bryn get his money back, eventually (which is the way things should go) while another client has been directly in touch with the Resident to say she transferred money this week to Portugal and when it did not reach her Portuguese bank account, she sent off an email.
This is the automatic reply she received:
“Following the death of the founder of PremierFX and sole director, Peter Rexstrew, in June of this year, the new directors have become concerned about the cash flow solvency of the company. Having taken professional advice from independent lawyers and accountants and, mindful of their over-riding duties to the firm’s creditors and customers, the directors have decided to suspend the business of PremierFX and to take steps to put the company into liquidation. In the meantime PremierFX will not transact any new business nor process any customer payments (inbound or outbound).
“The directors anticipate that the liquidators will be contacting customers once they have been appointed.”
Says Sandra Wilkinson in a block email addressed to “Press in the Algarve”: “Clearly Premier FX are processing money “inbound”, as they have accepted mine, but they are keeping it which I would suggest is fraudulent.
“Perhaps if you could all give this some news space you may save your readers from losing money – or more than they already have!”
The Resident has attempted to contact Premier FX but the phone is set to a recorded message which repeats verbatim the words Bryn Paling and Sandra Wilkinson will have received by email (see update below).
The situation is further complicated by comments from people who write that they have seen Premier FX “recommended on Portuguese expat sites” in the last week.
If that is the case, this kind of promotion will only lead to further heartache.
Bizarrely, the company’s Facebook page appears to have been operating as normal. Yesterday’s post reads: “Hello Thursday! The interbank rates on our most popular currency pairs today are:
Have a great day!”
The day before, the company appears to have been encouraging followers to donate to two charities that were described as close to Peter Rextrew’s heart.
Updates to follow.
SATURDAY:
It’s still not immediately clear who Premier FX’s new directors are.
A client posted a query on Thursday about the company not answering the telephone, and whoever accesses (or accessed) the company’s Facebook account wrote back to assure them that all was well. The client was given an email address to contact.
Premier FX’s Facebook page has since vanished, wiping all that information.
On the plus-side are the online comments by people who know this kind of business and who all say that Premier FX was FCA-registered, and therefore clients should get their money back.
The unanswered question of course is ‘when?’ No-one right now can tell, as the ‘circumstances’ behind the closure are unknown.
Comments over Facebook include those wondering why a business would go into liquidation on the death of the owner.
Peter Rextrew was an extremely respected businessman and his untimely death last month during heart surgery in Lisbon was a terrible shock to his family and the business community both here and in Mallorca, where he had recently moved.
Articles written about Rextrew’s death suggest Managing Director Nick Jones took over the reins in Almancil, describing the business only a month ago as “in extremely good shape”.
Jones is quoted as having told the Algarve Daily News “it’s business as usual as far as our clients and services are concerned. Peter’s family and our team are completely focused on delivering a personal and seamless service, something which was of paramount importance to him. We are all receiving tremendous support from so many people, and the partners on whom our business depends.”
Since writing this story we have been contacted by various sources, including people with knowledge of Premier FX activity in Mallorca, and one who had attended Peter Rexstrew’s funeral. This latter source said there was “no hint of anything like this happening” at the funeral. Another has written that her contact at Premier FX “was/is Cathryn Evans who assured us a couple of days ago that everything would carry on as normal. There is no answer on her mobile today. The inheritors of the business are Peter’s two children, Katy, 28 and Charlie, 22 who were operating from the (company’s) Reigate office”.
The same source sent us a Mallorca website story on Premier FX’s purchase last July of the Spanish island’s Global Currency Service Limited. The report described Premier FX as “a UK Limited Company with offices in London, Spain and Portugal. They are regulated by UK Revenue & Customs and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Client funds are held in secure, segregated accounts at Barclays Bank in London and are fully protected by law”.
That last sentence should hopefully bring a bit of solace to all those Premier FX clients who are otherwise having a truly rotten weekend.
Just after 4pm today we made contact with Peter Rextrew’s son Charlie, believed to be one of the inheritors of Premier FX and very possibly one of the new directors. He accepted that this weekend is being exceptionally difficult for clients whose money has been affected, but stressed that he would (only) be in touch on Monday.
The source who attended Charlie’s father’s funeral has added that she knows for a fact that both Peter Rextrew’s children “are devastated”.
This is a clip still on Youtube celebrating the 10th year anniversary of Premier FX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEoPSVuBtdc
MONDAY UPDATE:
As of 3.15pm this afternoon, the silence has been deafening. People who have already had three fairly sleepless nights are none the wiser of when they can reclaim possession of their money.
It is not even clear whether liquidators have been appointed.
As one source who has been in touch with us since the story broke commented: “Our investment guy comments that they did not put one word of reassurance into their message”…
TUESDAY/ WEDNESDAY:
Despair finally has opened up to various clients getting proactive. Law suits are being prepared. Another ‘forex’ company has leapt into the breach with a solution and word on the grapevine is that liquidators will be in place very shortly.
One thing this whole sorry story has shown is that PremierFX replacement directors and staff have shown scant regard for precious clients.
Another is that keeping in touch via Facebook groups for many people has been a godsend.
For the developing story in full, see our paper edition, out tomorrow (Thursday).
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
