ok my hearing was today. the outcome was not as good as hoped for, but i think Profitable Plots came away worse-off than i did.
i know staff of Profitable Plots are reading this forum, and i know at least 1 other forummer here knows my identity, but i hope you'll keep my identity anonymous please? i need to say what needs to be said, but i don't need the unwanted attention.
if there are any members of the press or media here on this forum, yes i'll consent to interviews, just respect my request for privacy please.
so before it's too late, here's my story:
like many of you, i'm a victim too. i bought AAA product in July 2008, and have yet to receive payment when it matured in July 2009. As May approaches, almost 1 full year has elapsed since payment was due.
When i purchased the product, i too was told that 12.5% returns wld be guaranteed within 1 year, potentially sooner (if the Philippines site got sold or UK received planning permission approval etc). I told my CSO, "thanks... but forget castles in the sky, 12.5% per annum is good enough", rejecting other products like Concorde Village etc that offered 900% returns but an indeterminite time-frame. She assured me 12.5% within 1 year was definitely possible, and legally binding.
So i paid the money in July, signed the contract in August. Many of you must've also had your contracts backdated to the time of payment right? That makes the contract itself somewhat dodgy, but i won't dwell on that.
In June 2009, i filled up my Exercise Form to request payment, and it got accepted by my CSO, and Chandra their Grp Sales Director. Was told by CSO that my payment wld be in August, since maturity was July.
Come August no payment was made, so I met Chandra to see what terms he cld offer as compensation. He dropped the shocker, "after 1 year 12.5% interest payment was due only, not the principal sum". He even challenged me to get lawyers. So i did.
I engaged a lawyer thru a friend of mine. My lawyer's name is Selva Naidu, of Liberty Law Practice.
With Selva's advice, I documented every twist, every ridiculous excuse and noted the times, places, and who said what. Also clearly documented, was their lame attempts to stall payment by trying to "fix an exchange rate".
They offered me the highest exchange rate within 30 days after maturity. That rate was 2.43 on 5 August 2009, which i kept pointing out to them but fell on deaf ears. Somehow they kept bouncing around 2 other rates instead, 2.37 and 2.39 (which to me is an obvious time wasting tactic, because a difference of 2 cents forms less than 1% of the entire sum payable)
I sent the customary Letter of Demand in September, they ignored my lawywer's 8 day deadline.
In October they "offered" to make payment (lip service), and i agreed to go and personally collect the cheque from their offices, but then they said the exact date / time and exchange rate was not confirmed, and the cheque was not ready. no payment was made, and there was no attempt to contact us.
In November we served Writ of Summons to appear in Court, they ignored that too (begining to see a pattern here eh?) and they offered to make payment in mid-November but didn't know who's address to send the cheque to? (can you believe that? how stupid do they think we are?) Since they simply refused to acknowledge that the rate to be used was 2.43 (highest in 30 day period after my maturity date) my lawyer and i were at wit's end. He asked me why we were using 2.43 in the first place? i said it was because that was what they offered. We decided that since they refused to accept the simple truth, why not just use the rate that i purchased the product in? After all, it was what i paid in July 2008, and that was what my receipts state. So we submitted our statement of claims with the GBP 14,625 amount to be converted to SGD at 2.69 (the rate at which i entered in July 2008)
Unsurprisingly, they ignored our summons, and didn't even file an appearance in court. So we took out a Default Judgment against them in November. In December, we served the Judgment on them, demanding payment of the full sum, plus interest, plus legal fees.
Guess what they did? They ignored that too. So my lawyer and I set out to seize money from their bank accounts using a Garnishee's Order. Surprise surprise. In January, they had money amounting to around $40k to be seized, and their bank (UOB) complied with the court's orders. Now, lo and behold... we got their attention.
Their lawyers (Drew & Napier) sprung into action that same day in January when their assets got frozen, and applied to set aside Default Judgment, applied to stay proceedings because of an Arbitration Agreement, and applied to undo the Garnishee's Order too.
At the same time, they offered a settlement out-of-court. It was about 97% of my original payment sum. Of course, they didn't offer any interest payment. Nor legal fees. Still it was very appealing, but in exchange they wanted me to shut up, and to withdraw the Judgment that i had against them. I told my lawyer I refused to accept their terms, because I knew the evidence i had could be used to help others in a similar predicament as mine.
This was the only time my lawyer and I disagreed. His sole concern was recovering my money, and rightly so, he assumed the settlement would have achieved our aims. He told me to leave it; if i engaged in a legal battle, it could cost tens of thousands, and possibly end up losing...
As the deadline to accept their offer was fast approaching and we hadn't replied, PP sent one of their more junior lawyers, a lady, to phone us and state the obvious that we are allowed to counter-propose (duh!). Eventually I convinced my lawyer to stick to our guns. No compromise. The fight was on.
February and March we were exchanging affidavits. It was my chance to submit all my evidence, and for Profitable Plots to surface all their inconsitencies. To me, they seemed like blatant lies like claiming the Option Agreement DID NOT allow for GBP 14,625 payment after 1 year, hence they didn't owe us any money... or really lame excuses like they tried so hard to make payment to us but don't have our address...
Now April, was our hearing. Even right up until yesterday, in their arguments submitted to the judge (and to us) they claimed the payment of GBP 14,625 was "good-will" and not obligated. But today, they sang a totally different tune... before the judge, they conceded payment was indeed due after all! (Hopefully, this is a sign of remorse, repentance, and a willingness to change from being the blatant arrogant jerks)
Also, the judge ruled that all costs of my own legal proceedings be paid to me.
Unfortunately, it's not completely a happy ending for me. The judge agreed to their request to set aside the judgment, solely on the grounds that the exchange rate we used (2.69) was questionable, since the AAA contract itself never stated what rate should be used. Although i'm rather disappointed the judgment got set aside, in truth, the main reasons why i wanted our initial judgment to stand in the first place was because:
a. I wanted all future investors (who can be bothered to do a background check on Profitable Plots) to KNOW that they're a shady no-good company, and
b. It was the only way to get Profitable Plots to PAY UP MY MONEY when they initially refused to admit they owed me a cent.
But now, on part a. that's what my desire to go to the media is for. As for part b, well they finally admitted openly to a judge that they do owe me money... not out of good-will, not on a special case-by-case basis... but contractually required, as we stated all along.
Now friends, see if their attitudes have changed? If they haven't, you may approach my lawyer Mr Selva Naidu. He's certainly well-versed with all their tricks and excuses seen so far, knows how to deal with them, and his costs are reasonable.
