One disgruntled EcoHouse employee has spoken out following last week’s raid by police in Brazil to investigate alleged suspected money laundering and tax evasion claims connected to company founder Anthony Armstrong-Emery and his daughter Gabriela Medeiros, the Chief of Operations for the company’s Brazilian operations.
Several Brazilian media last week reported that 10 search warrants were acted upon last Thursday (October 30) across the country and at the EcoHouse offices in Natal, northeast Brazil. The newspapers also reported no arrests were made in the move entitled ‘Operation Godfather’.
Documents were reported to have been seized, the newspapers wrote.
The employee told PropertyGuru: “It’s about time the public found out about this mess.”
In a memo to U.K. staff on Wednesday, who have not been paid for two months, Chief Executive Officer Deen Bissessar (pictured) wrote: “EcoHouse has now reached a point where it is almost inevitable that EcoHouse Group Developments will have to go into liquidation.
“The actual time frame for this is in the hands of creditors. Once that occurs under the statutory provisions it is understood that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will pay any outstanding salary up to the statutory maximum per week (which will most likely cover all outstanding salary – subject to confirmation by the eventual liquidators).”
Bissessar added: “We are still trying to deal with the ongoing investor situation. To that end, a client and agent communication has gone out today.
“Further, to protect as much as we can the position in Brazil and in order to maximise the protection of returns to investors and other creditors it is hoped to put EcoHouse Developments Ltd into administration. This will allow us the time required secure additional finance facilities needed to complete the developments and subsequently repay all parties.
“It was never our intention to allow your wages to be unpaid which has no doubt caused you undue financial hardship. There were and continue be challenges in meeting our obligations, but we are working tirelessly to rectify things.
“If it is not already apparent, we have been left with no choice but to shut down our operations in the U.K., as such EcoHouse can no longer continue to employ staff.”
EcoHouse was the most-popular overseas property investment in Singapore during 2012, with an estimated 700 or more individual investors from the city-state investing in the Brazil social housing project. Media reports in Brazil suggest there are more than 2,000 individual investors around the world.
Investors from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand are known to be impacted, as well as individuals from around the world.
The employee added: “The first sign of trouble for us was when our wages appeared late one month, and then October’s did not arrive at all after they changed our pay date from the last working Friday of the month to the end of the month.
“When our wages did not appear at the end of the month EcoHouse sent an email to provide to our creditors stating that payment would be made on October 17.
“This never happened and we are still waiting for our wages. We have not officially been told we don’t have a job, but no work is being given or being carried out to my knowledge.”
The member of staff elaborated that there have been a number of “dramas” associated with Ecohouse, the international company EH International, which has no staff manning it as they were not paid commissions.
The employee alleged problems began to surface during mid-August. There was an issue with the domain going down for a couple of days due to an employee failing to read renewal notices from the hosting company.
“Considering how long it took to renew the domain we thought back then there was a problem.”
“It’s a shocking position to be in from a company that you wanted to stay at, and I’m at a loss for words in terms of how we’ve been treated, considering there has been no response or communication from management in the slightest until now.”
This news will come as no consolation for the thousands of EcoHouse investors around the world who are still waiting in hope of their up to 20 percent returns and capital being paid back.
Legal action is known to have begun in Singapore, the United Kingdom and Brazil.
Writing in his Facebook wall earlier this week and directing his comments to fans of Monza Football Club, where he remains President, Emery said: “I will not let you down I promise as I said to you all the other day, all of the financial problems will be over soon.”
Image: EcoHouse’ Chief of Global Operations, Deen Bissessar.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.