Tuesday 19 April 2011

How do you sue a non-existent company?

Hi There
It's been a while since I added to this, but well the good old ICFBA have been stirring things again. You would think that they would want to keep a low profile, but apparently not.
It seems that they have been saying that I never actually won my case against them and that they never even contested the case. Well a few documents should set that right!

This first one is a picture of their acknowledgement of service:


What I like the most about this one is that it was actually signed by Steve Ebanja. He has even given his position as Company Director. Something he was later to deny. You will also note the date, 19th March 2008.
And it was Steve that represented the company at the hearing on the 15th of May 2008. Unfortunately for them the only defence they brought was that they didn't recognise the court's jurisdiction, because they were based in Gibraltar.
I knew that this wouldn't work, because the original contract was signed in the UK under my terms and conditions. What I didn't know is that by returning the acknowledgement of service they had actually accepted the court's jurisdiction.
But I guess they knew that they couldn't defend it based on the facts, so that was there only hope.
In the pre trial discovery I listed 5 pages of relevant documents to support my case. ICFBA Holdings Ltd listed just 5 documents that they thought were relevant to the case. So you can see dear reader I had a lot of documentary evidence to support my case, all of which they were aware of.
Anyway, at the hearing on the 15th of May, Steve was not happy to hear that he had just lost the case. I was given leave to apply for summary judgement against them, which I did.
Now according to the ICFBA, the new company was also incorporated on the 15th of May - coincidence? Hardly.
I wrote to them on the 18th of May asking for settlement. They responded by saying they were going to come back to me, but it wouldn't be until the 30th because of holidays.
They wrote to the court on the 28th of May informing them of the demise of the Gibraltar company and the settng up of the American company. Here is a picture of their letter to the court, which is now a public domain document as it relates to the CCJ.


As you can see, they thought it funny to sign off to the judge "Do have a nice day" You will also note that once again the letter is signed by a graphic. It seems nobody at ICFBA was prepared to put their name to such a letter. That seems to be their standard operating practice.
Below is a picture of my final judgement against them, which proofs beyond any doubt that I did indeed win my case against them and that they moved the company after they lost the hearing on the 15th of May, not before as they claim.
So you might be wondering why they are still bugging me. After cheating me out of my money you would think that they would just let it lie. The problem is that they are still trying to lure people into their organisation. Last I heard it was £7500 a pop. I still get phone calls from people who have been approached by them, usually through unsolicited emails.
Many potential ICFBA recruits come across this website and I am pleased to say it stops and makes them think.
One charge levelled against me in the past is that it is just their word against mine. Well, that's why I have put up these documents. The case was real and they did lose it. Having lost it they transferred all their assets to a new company. That annoyed me so I set up this blog.

Once they became aware of this blog they published their slanderous letter. The purpose of this was to blackmail me into taking down my blog. I issued them with a cease and desist, and they invited me to sue them or if I took down my blog they would remove the letter. But I have little chance of suing them directly as I cannot find anyone to sue.

I have attempted to track them down to take legal action against them, but in all their correspondence, and on their main website, they just put “ICFBA Holdings Ltd, a corporation registered in the USA”. They don’t say where they are registered or provide their registration number. The address they give is just a post office box in Boston. The assumption, given the Post Box address, is that it will be in Massachusetts but although they claim to operate and be registered in the USA, the state of Massachusetts has never heard of this company. This can be verified at the company registration page at:
http://corp.sec.state.ma.us/corp/corpsearch/corpsearchinput.asp
And as I said, they operate in the USA through a Post Office Box. They have however registered ICFBA Holdings Ltd in the UK. You may wonder why they need another company with the same name. My guess would be that it is in case I or anyone else choose to try and take them to court, then they can once again move their assets to a nice safe company. Or could it be that someone doing a quick search for them will come across the UK company and think this is them! However, their website clearly states:

"Excepting ICFBA (Consulting) Ltd., subsidiary companies do not receive payments from any source other than ICFBA Holdings Ltd. Therefore, without regard to how any service is provided, ICFBA Holdings Ltd (a corporation registered in the USA) is the sole beneficiary of any payment made to the ICFBA, no matter how processed."

So if you are thinking of joining you best be quite sure about who is getting your money! Ask who the Company Directos are. Ask about their USA registration number. You may find that they quickly lose interest in trying to recruit you!


And until they stop harrassing me by continueing to publish libelous crap about me, I will continue to update this blog.
By the way, if you ever find out who is behind ICFBA Holdings Ltd, please let me know. Unlike them, you can contact me through my website which is listed in my profile. However, in nearly three years, nobody has been able to supply me with that information.