I had thought just to let this matter drop, but obviously the ICFBA wish otherwise. You will notice that up until now I had posted nothing since May 08, the time that I won my case against them. To be honest I was annoyed. I had spent some 5 months preparing the case and having won it the company set up a new ICFBA Holdings Ltd in the states and transferred all the Asetts there, denying me the chance to get my money.
The ICFBA (the new company) has however chosen to publish an open letter about me and this dispute which is factually incorrect and actually libelous. As with all their letters however, a person has not signed the letter - it is signed by a company graphic. It seems the new company doesn't like anyone to know who is actually running it, or have any information published about it.
And that is the real reason they have published the letter - they want me to take this blog down. Now they could have just asked, or if I publish anything which is not true they could always threaten to sue me. I mean that is there style after all. Just look at what they did at Hexus.net:
http://forums.hexus.net/general-discussion/142105-anyone-heard-icfba.html
People were just trying to find out who they were because they received unsolicited emails from them.
I know they have also threatened UK Business Forums as well.
So why not threaten me? Obviously because what I am writing is actually true.
So I issued them with a Cease and Desist for their letter and threatened to sue them for libel. And here is where it gets funny, no really.
They sent me an email where they invited me to go ahead and do so but pointed out that as they were now based in the US I would have to prove the facts weren't true and "prove serious and wilful negligence to the jury."
Obviously they have not realised that I can sue them in the UK as the letter was published by them on the internet, which they very nicely admitted in their email, and is accessible in the UK.
They also suggested that, "The obvious alternative to legal action would of course be for both parties to remove any postings that the other party finds objectionable."
So it would seem that because they can't sue me for publishing the truth they decided to publish a letter full of defamation thinking that they would be safe from being sued because they are based in the US, hoping that they could negotiate with me to take down any references to what the old ICFBA did to me.
They also sent me their address for service which is a PO Box in Boston.
Now this is very strange, because according to their website http://www.icfba.biz/ their "central admin office" is in Lymington! In fact their contact page has no address for ICFBA Holdings Ltd other than the Lymington address.
It is obviously very difficult to figure out from their website who they are and who actually runs the company. And why would you call an American company Ltd. They don't have limited companies in America, they have incorporations. Maybe they want people to think at first glance it is actually a UK company, but why would they do that?
Interestingly if you search Companies House you will come across another company called ICFBA Holdings Ltd which is registered at the Lymington address. So how many companies do they need?
My guess would be that they have no offices in the states and that all mail is forwarded back to the UK. After all that is what they did with the Gibralter company and I see no reason why they would change; they haven't changed anything else.
Steve Ebanja once claimed on linkedin to own the ICFBA: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/steve-ebanja/0/67b/872
At least that's what it said until he I pointed it out to him. He has of course now changed it as he doesn't, at least he didn't own the old ICFBA. I have no idea who owns the new ICFBA, do you?
At the time of our dispute Steve was at great pains to point out he didn't own any of it and was just a contracted consultant to ICFBA, not even a Director in the Company Law sense of the word, but he did use the title Director and still does for the new company.
If you have any dealings with ICFBA or are thinking of joining them, you may care to ask:
Who actually owns ICFBA Holdings Ltd?
Who are the legal Directors of the Company.
Why have they set up a new company in England called - wait for it - ICFBA Holdings Ltd (Company No. 06728646 registered to the Lymington Address)
What relationship does it have to the American Company?
What position do Steve Ebanja, Alistair Quinlan and Gary Lewis hold in the company and why does Steve Ebanja insist he doesn't write their emails and correspondence but refuse to say who does?
Why does ICFBA Holdings Ltd sign off their letters and emails with a graphic rather than an identifiable company employee like most reputable companies do?
For an organisation that wants to create "a community of trusted advisors" they are not very transparent in my opinion.
But this is not half the story. Some of the underhanded tactics used by ICFBA Holdings Ltd against me during the court case you will find completely unbelieveable. As I mentioned I had decided to put the whole matter behind me until they pulled this little stunt with no provocation from me for over a year. Now my mind is to document everything that the nasty Gibralter company tried to pull; and I have documentary evidence of it all, so I have no fear of any libel action - indeed I would welcome it.
Take Care.
The ICFBA (the new company) has however chosen to publish an open letter about me and this dispute which is factually incorrect and actually libelous. As with all their letters however, a person has not signed the letter - it is signed by a company graphic. It seems the new company doesn't like anyone to know who is actually running it, or have any information published about it.
And that is the real reason they have published the letter - they want me to take this blog down. Now they could have just asked, or if I publish anything which is not true they could always threaten to sue me. I mean that is there style after all. Just look at what they did at Hexus.net:
http://forums.hexus.net/general-discussion/142105-anyone-heard-icfba.html
People were just trying to find out who they were because they received unsolicited emails from them.
I know they have also threatened UK Business Forums as well.
So why not threaten me? Obviously because what I am writing is actually true.
So I issued them with a Cease and Desist for their letter and threatened to sue them for libel. And here is where it gets funny, no really.
They sent me an email where they invited me to go ahead and do so but pointed out that as they were now based in the US I would have to prove the facts weren't true and "prove serious and wilful negligence to the jury."
Obviously they have not realised that I can sue them in the UK as the letter was published by them on the internet, which they very nicely admitted in their email, and is accessible in the UK.
They also suggested that, "The obvious alternative to legal action would of course be for both parties to remove any postings that the other party finds objectionable."
So it would seem that because they can't sue me for publishing the truth they decided to publish a letter full of defamation thinking that they would be safe from being sued because they are based in the US, hoping that they could negotiate with me to take down any references to what the old ICFBA did to me.
They also sent me their address for service which is a PO Box in Boston.
Now this is very strange, because according to their website http://www.icfba.biz/ their "central admin office" is in Lymington! In fact their contact page has no address for ICFBA Holdings Ltd other than the Lymington address.
And they certainly own the website and all of the ICFBA names as their Terms and conditions page quite clearly states.
It is obviously very difficult to figure out from their website who they are and who actually runs the company. And why would you call an American company Ltd. They don't have limited companies in America, they have incorporations. Maybe they want people to think at first glance it is actually a UK company, but why would they do that?
Interestingly if you search Companies House you will come across another company called ICFBA Holdings Ltd which is registered at the Lymington address. So how many companies do they need?
My guess would be that they have no offices in the states and that all mail is forwarded back to the UK. After all that is what they did with the Gibralter company and I see no reason why they would change; they haven't changed anything else.
Steve Ebanja once claimed on linkedin to own the ICFBA: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/steve-ebanja/0/67b/872
At least that's what it said until he I pointed it out to him. He has of course now changed it as he doesn't, at least he didn't own the old ICFBA. I have no idea who owns the new ICFBA, do you?
At the time of our dispute Steve was at great pains to point out he didn't own any of it and was just a contracted consultant to ICFBA, not even a Director in the Company Law sense of the word, but he did use the title Director and still does for the new company.
If you have any dealings with ICFBA or are thinking of joining them, you may care to ask:
Who actually owns ICFBA Holdings Ltd?
Who are the legal Directors of the Company.
Why have they set up a new company in England called - wait for it - ICFBA Holdings Ltd (Company No. 06728646 registered to the Lymington Address)
What relationship does it have to the American Company?
What position do Steve Ebanja, Alistair Quinlan and Gary Lewis hold in the company and why does Steve Ebanja insist he doesn't write their emails and correspondence but refuse to say who does?
Why does ICFBA Holdings Ltd sign off their letters and emails with a graphic rather than an identifiable company employee like most reputable companies do?
For an organisation that wants to create "a community of trusted advisors" they are not very transparent in my opinion.
But this is not half the story. Some of the underhanded tactics used by ICFBA Holdings Ltd against me during the court case you will find completely unbelieveable. As I mentioned I had decided to put the whole matter behind me until they pulled this little stunt with no provocation from me for over a year. Now my mind is to document everything that the nasty Gibralter company tried to pull; and I have documentary evidence of it all, so I have no fear of any libel action - indeed I would welcome it.
Take Care.
