How do I recover my money

[volcanica]

All of this started in 2022. A very good friend of mine said she is investing in a business and asked me if I would like to. I was skeptical at first but she showed me her account statements saying she has been receiving 4% of her investment as a profit monthly. Because we know each other for more than a decade, and we always had a decent relationship, I went with the word of her mouth and invested £8k. After 2 months I received nothing. On the third month she sent me contract saying I will receive 4% if business makes profit and if it doesn’t I will have to bear a certain amount of loss, and if I decide to get out of the business I can(which I tried to but she never replied or answered my calls). After that she started avoiding my calls. On repeated calls she one day answered and said she has lost all the money and now nothing can be paid back. I pleaded with her to give me money back even on instalments. But she is downright refusing to do so saying she has lost her money as well so she will not repay me anything. I never signed the contract or anything because she sent it to me 3 months after I lent her the money. She’s saying I can do whatever but she will not pay me as She doesn’t have any money left. Please let me know what are my options to recover my money?. I have been chasing her since 2023 and she has received only 3 of my calls in this period. I have bank statements showing I transferred her the money with the reference she asked me to. Any advice plz? I know I have done a stupid thing but I just need advice, and no rude comments please.

Maybe talk to a solicitor?

Do you have proof it was a loan in writing? This sounds tricky as you say it was to invest in a business and then next you say it was a loan to her…

@ChristmasTimeChristmasJoyI have nothing in writing except the contract which she sent me saying she has taken £8k from me to invest in a business and i will receive 4% as profit. If the company bears a loss I will be returned the amount left over after the loss has been cleared. But now she says the company has 0 money to payback.

It was an investment, not a loan, you don't get it back, it's gone. It sucks I know, but as you say you were naive. She appealed to your basic urge for easy money but we know there's generally no such thing and that investments are rarely guaranteed to repay. It's a gamble you took and lost. Expensive lesson, sorry. And a terrible friend who used you, definitely forget about her.

This. But I wouldn't hold out much hope unless you have paperwork to prove it was a loan. It looks like you gave her the money to "invest" on your behalf. What was the "investment" in? Bitcoin?

@pinkdelighthehe not bitcoin. It was a grocery shop. Now she say’s it’s all gone. But I see the shop is till open.

She’s properly fleeced you.
What a scum bag!

Okay so at least it's not a scam thing like MML and there's a visible business, but a lot of shops have big overheads and she may not be paying herself fully, plus it's easy to hide profits even if there were some, or to wind the business up and write off your investment. If you were minded to, I guess you could make her life difficult by giving the business bad reviews esp if it's local, but then you'd definitely never get the money (though it sounds like you won't anyway).

@pinkdelight any idea if a solicitor can help me?

If the business is still trading and your contract doesn't say you can lose all the money then take her to small claims court. You can start the process on line.

It will cost you a few hundred pounds in fees though, and you need to have all your evidence ready.

Thats the first place you go, rather than taking advice from here.

I would suggest calling your bank and ask to speak to the fraud department. You maybe able to go down the scam/coercion route.

It seems from the information you have posted that there are three possibilities here.

• You loaned this money to your friend. If that is what happened, your friend owes you the money. However, if she genuinely has no money, it may take a long time for you to get the money back, if you get it at all.
• You invested in a business. If that is what happened, your money was at risk. If the business failed (which may have happened even if the shop is still open - it may now belong to a different business), you have lost all your money.
• Your friend scammed you. She didn't invest the money and quite possibly never intended to do so. To be honest, the talk of guaranteed 4% return every month as long as the business was profitable strongly suggests that this was a scam. That would be an annual 48% return on investment. It sounds too good to be true, which means it almost certainly isn't true.

Whilst it sounds like a scam, I cannot say that for certain from the information posted. A solicitor will be able to look at all the information you have and tell you your situation. They will be able to advise whether you should call in the police, sue your friend or just write off the money.

What is the name of the company? You can look it up
on Companies House and see what its financial position is from last filed accounts. You can also see who its directors and shareholders are.

Bottom line though: £8k is a lot of money to an individual but it’s not a lot in litigation terms and the costs of litigating (if you could identify a cause of action) would rapidly outstrip the £8k.

It’s unclear from your post whether this was an “investment” or a loan. If the former, then yes, companies can go bust and in those circumstances the investors lose their money.

I’m sorry you have such a shit “friend”.

@Elektra1 I have no hope of getting back the money now. But what angers me the most is I tried asking her my money back within 2 months of giving it to her. But she never replied to my calls and msgs and now after 2 yrs she says it’s all gone. The other thing she showed me is the amount of money lost which I calculated and it equals to the sum of what I gave her plus the amount she says she has herself invested. It’s all seems so dodgy.

If you invest money into a business or issue a friend a loan, you have no legal basis on which to simply 'ask for it back' (outside of any agreed) terms after two months, simply because you've changed your mind.

The whole thing does seem incredibly dodgy. But as others have said, you haven't been clear on the exact nature of the transaction or the contract, who either was with or how your friend is involved with the business.

You initially state that she was just an investor like you. Later you say that she has provided you with the contract for your investment, and that she has access to company financials that you don't, which would suggest a deeper level of involvement.

prh47bridge's post nails it. If you're intent on pursuing this, you must take qualified legal advice. They will consider your account and the evidence you hold (contract, communications etc) and advise whether or not you have grounds for action.

it seems dodgy because it is and was right from the start.
either she was trying to be the next bernie madoff or simply tried to start up a simple ponzi scheme.
Ponzi schemes | Action Fraud

I’d contact the police and say you have been a victim of fraud. Sounds to me like there never was any investment.

For your investment you presumably got shares. Were you ever given the share certificates? Is there any proof that she did in fact invest your money in this company?

You say yourself you invested in the business and it wasn't a loan.

She says the business failed. Basically you handed her the cash. If you think you have been scammed report her to the police

Yes she has completely defrauded you. You could go after her through small claims, and she would have to prove that she lost everything. It’s whether or not you can deal with the stress of that.

basically, she was never a friend, you were just a convenient victim.

Company has gone bust, you've lost the money. That's kind of the deal with investing.

Small claims court as you have text evidence etc?

It may scare her into returning your money.

@tothelefttotheleft Yes I have text evidence and bank statements showing I transferred her the amount. I have decided to pursue the matter through a solicitor.

Can you contact the shop and see if they’re aware? May help you prove fraud if they say they’ve never sold shares or whatever