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Nice Ponzi scheme, Cake box must be doing the same thing too but I hope I’m wrong. They over expand just to gain hype and high revenue but at a huge loss!
I hope all holders will set up a Shareholders action group and sue the Directors and the Auditor;s for all they are worth.
auditors of Patisserie Valerie - they are either 100% incompetent or its not an act.
of the sofa! The auditors had millions of pound coins down the sofa - didn't find any, not one!
Grant Thornton UK LLP - they done a remarkable job at CAKE, just pressed print and collected the cheque buy the look of it.
Er the CFO has been arrested already
Would like to add my commiserations to all. This used to be such a great business a couple of years ago. I sold out a long time ago because I felt Luke Johnson was too occupied with either other business (and later politics), and consequently wasn't focused on CAKE anymore. They day he said to the press that there was more than Patisserie Valerie in life, is the very day I sold out. I believe in focus, and if the founder has better things to do, I will invest in better shares. It now transpires that the management team got away with too many things that should have been picked by the board. Lack of focus, lack discipline, alseep on the job....the consequences are massive. I only hope for all SH, that this bird rises like a Phoenix from it's ashes. It is very unfair - sorry to all.
Love the games that administrators play. Offload all the underperforming sites, say that there is lots of interest in the remaining business and let me guess, their preferred purchaser will be from a former major shareholder or director. The buyers make loads, the administrators take a large fee and the small shareholders get 1p in the £ in 3 years time. All legal of course
Yes its extreme but it's hard to criticise the Chinese when you see all the dodgy stuff that goes on here virtually unpunished. The city of London used to pride itself on being straight "my word is my bond", now its teetering on the brink of credibility thanks to some very greedy people.
Maybe we could do with some Chinese justice -
https://www.quora.com/China-executed-14-billionaires-between-03-11-and-another-yesterday-with-his-cohorts-what-does-this-say-about-the-justice-system-in-China-vs-the-West-where-the-wealthy-are-rarely-punished-to-the-fullest-extent-of-the-law
The saddest thing about these (too frequent) occurrences ... is that the results of the investigative audit are never made public. Frankly it is quite hard to see how Grant Thornton could have failed to spot this fraud given the simplicity of the business model. Yes CAKE were expanding so could have been hiding some bogus value in the Plant & Equipment figures, maybe 3-4mm per year for past few years, but the only figure that was seriously increasing y-o-y to represent the seemingly great profits and margins being made was CASH. If the auditors didn't validate the Cash in Bank figure then they are not only negligent but incompetent.
A long Jail sentence should be mandatory for these crimes.
20 years Jail term would send the message.
half a billion pounds written off, and it seems no individuals are at fault and no criminal charges.... Is it really still that easy to rip off investors? Hopefully the SFO step in like that did with the Torex rip off that I witnessed. https://www.sfo.gov.uk/2013/06/21/final-conviction-torex-retail-false-accounting-case/
Will be interesting to see the Administrators comment on the role of the Auditors given the “000’s” of fraudulent entires. No doubt the auditors will hide behind the directors “letter of representation” but as with Carillion and Afren it merely shows that auditor’s reports carry little value to shareholders. As a finance director for almost 20 years I still find it difficult to believe this can have been carried out by a single individual or board member unless controls were absolutely none existent in which case the audit should have picked this up.
I thought at the time those swooping in to buy shares at 50p were a bit silly - sorta like giving a mugger your phone when he only asked for your wallet. In a just world the directors would be held accountable for this. Maybe Mr Johnson was too busy making political donations towards Brexit to do his job properly? I suppose most of the investors were institutional holders i.e. pensions of ordinary people so this loss will be absorbed into slightly lower fund returns. However as an individual investor this makes me even more wary of companies with 'too good to be true' numbers, apart from that this was pretty much impossible to second-guess. Unless those that allowed this to happen are punished something like this will happen again. Guaranteed.
Plenty on the BBC website: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46970600
Its also sad to see that, if you go on to the BBC website, you would already struggle to find mention. One minor article on the business page. Its a case of yesterdays news, move on. Harsh world
They eat all cake usual charging £500 per hour. Directors waltz off to their next job. Auditors asleep they were either incompetent or its not an act. FCA useless as asual. Ordinary shareholders as usual pay the price and are given 0p return for trusting directors. Ordinary employees of Pat. lose their jobs due to others having their fingers in the till by the look of it. Huge market cap. Reduced to crumbs. Shocking to say the least. No one will be held to ransom.
Gone bust. OMG!!!
How did this happen?i not an investor, just heard the news about it
This is criminal to say the least.
BBC News - Patisserie Valerie collapses into administration as rescue talks fail
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46965761
I really don’t understand how that amount of money could have slipped down behind the sofa cushions for so long.
Did I not read somewhere that some stockmarket analysts were skeptical of the reported figures. Not many analysts are 'forensic' enough when commenting on listed companies (or, are under pressure not to ask hard questions) and just rely on the 'audited' 'headline' figures. But an experienced business analyst ( a management accountant for instance) can sometimes unravel the wheels within wheels that auditors are not trained to do. In my early days in the City very few fund managers bothered to understand balance sheets, which often offer clues.
CAKE until there is nothing left. They usually charge £500 per hour so will do a thorough check of the books. Shareholders will be left with crumbs in the shop.