412 days ago
The funder of the lifestyle of disgraced, porcine CEO, Neill Ricketts, that is to say Versarien (VRS), will run out of cash and still have debts of almost £8 million by April or May. It has been knocked back on its big grant application to Innovate UK – as revealed here – and so must get a placing away PDQ otherwise the Fat Lady and the Fat Man will be singing a late Spring duet. Can you smell the desperation? For the second time in five days, we have an RNS Reach.
429 days ago
In today’s, utterly dreadful, results from Versarien (VRS) the auditors make it clear that the company will go bust if it cannot get a material cash injection from grants, loans or share issues. There is something Versarien is not telling investors about that. I wonder if it has told auditors BDO or its hapless Nomad SP Angel.
712 days ago
In today’s podcast, I discuss the FTSE 100 sliding; bitcoin’s crash; Coinbase; Online Blockchain (OBC); Argo Blockchain (ARB) and 3 questions Peter Wall MUST answer; Cellular Goods (CBX), where Wall today stepped down as chair (odd timing); Verditek (VDTK); the shame of Innovate UK and ex-footballer and NFT spiv, Michael Owen; Petropavlovsk (POG); and Versarien (VRS), where a cash crisis looms. Now, to brace myself: the mother-in-law will arrive at her new home in just a few hours.
906 days ago
In today’s Bearcast, I ask how much would you be prepared to do to break LSE Rules to stop your company’s share price from crashing – ref Chill Brands (CHLL). I look at Versarien (VRS) and its latest spoof and the track record of it spunking your cash via Innovate UK grants. But the meat here is on HK360 Limited Brian Basham, Net Zero Infratructure (NZI), the FCA and what appears to be amassive failure of corporate governance, as outlined HERE
956 days ago
We have covered the dodgy grants and loans handed out by taxpayer funded Innovate UK many times on this website. You will be delighted that it is at it again, this time handing out £315,000 to serial failures and deceivers of investors Verditek UK. The grant is over 18 months but Verditek will be out of cash by Christmas this year but who cares? it is only taxpayer cash isn’t it?
1322 days ago
One of the striking things about how taxpayer cash is doled out via Innovate UK is how many of the Marxist Madrassas we used to call Universities are on the gravy train. Among those really tucking in is the University of West of England, UWE the place where hard line socialists wanting to live in Bristol but too dim to get a job at Bristol University end up working. So here is where £83,341 of your cash went.
1323 days ago
The criminal way that taxpayer cash is handed out by Innovate UK to companies that are either undeserving or can raise cash from share issuances in the private sector will, in the end turn out to be a scandal running into the hundreds of millions of pounds. Yesterday I exposed the £4.6 million, wholly unjustified, spunk on Haydale Graphene, today I flag up £117,377 dished out to a total fraud, Environmental Recycling Technologies then listed on AIM.
1323 days ago
I may be in the gulags of Merthyr Tydfil by tomorrow night so if there is no Monday bearcast, you know why. I look at abuse of furlough and how some folks want this madness to continue and then at the Government’s bonkers demands of the EU to allow it to hand out vast sums to British companies. In that vein, I flag up my latest expose of Innovate UK HERE. I sense this scandal is massive and will grow. If any of you are bored and want to assist uncovering it, the relevant link is HERE.
1323 days ago
We have already exposed the cavalier way Innovate UK has spunked taxpayer cash on Versarien (VRS) with zero accountability. Next in line seems to be Verditek (VDTK). Now I turn to Haydale Graphene (HAYD).
1325 days ago
It is bad news for gender fluid, Bidstack (BIDS) owning, journalist-defaming moron Mike Turner - the countdown to the next bailout placing is underway. I crunch the numbers and speculate on what boss Lyin’ James Draper will do about it. After that I consider Verditek (VDTK) and its growing catalogue of lies and also warn Innovate UK that I am on its case as I have been alerted to another of its grant scandals. Finally I consider two companies that are desperate to be bid for but which, I suspect, will not be: Audioboom (BOOM) and Eurasia Mining (EUA).
1326 days ago
It is a father and son effort today from Shipston. On the agenda: Verditek (VDTK), Xtract Resources (XTR), and IQE (IQE).
1339 days ago
As things stand, Versarien (VRS) has drawn down the first 40% of a £5 million low interest loan from taxpayer-funded Innovate UK despite demonstrably being ineligible for what is the body’s biggest ever loan - indeed admitting in its own annual report that it breaches the eligibility criteria. That is a scandal. But I can now show why this scandal is far worse and suggests that Innovate UK hands out cash to favoured companies on an utterly indiscriminate and un-monitored manner which no assessment of whether its funding delivers any return or benefits for taxpayers. What follows is shocking. A co-conspirator has raised the issue of the illegitimate loan with Innovate UK and has this response from a Matthew Oswin:
1348 days ago
I guess under the Tories it is about who you know, not whether you are qualified when it comes to accessing taxpayer cash. It worked for the pole dancing American bimbo who was a “close friend” of Boris when London’s Mayor and, as you can see below, with the blues in power, Neill Ricketts of Versarien (VRS) is a man well positioned to open the right doors. Today, his firm confirmed that it had received the first £1.96 million of a £5 million soft taxpayer loan from Innovate UK. Senior Tories such as Alok Sharma and Rishi Sunak were warned that Versarien did not qualify but the loan went ahead regardless. Let’s be clear this is the biggest ever loan by Innovate UK by a mile and this is pure and simple sleaze and here is why.
1356 days ago
It appears that a second charge has been registered at Companes House by taxpayer backed Innovate UK for its £5 million loan to Versarien (VRS). This means that if Versarien defaults taxpayers may well not get all their cash back. That on its own seems a clear breach of Innovate UK rules and a reason why this loan should not be made. But there is worse. In its quite atrocious results today Versarien itself gives a reason why the loan application is illegal. Lucian Miers has written to Business Secretary Alok Sharma to flag this up.
1362 days ago
There are breaches of TR1 rules and a lack of transparency on Versarien’s (VRS) cash position. We need clarity, and that clarity will demonstrate why the £5 million UK taxpayer loan is 100% illegal. I move from one dog to two others: Iconic (ICON) and Supply@ME Capital (SYME) before offering some price targets on Ariana (AAU) where I am a very happy shareholder.
1368 days ago
Yesterday I published a letter from Amanda Solloway MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State – Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, to fellow Tory MP Bim Afolami in which she explained why Versarien (VRS) should receive a £5 million loan from taxpayer-funded Innovate UK, its largest ever such loan. Either this is Tory sleaze, Versarien boss Neill Ricketts boasts of his visits to No 10, or Ms Solloway has been badly misled. As such, I have written to her to alert her to that possibility. The letter is below:
1374 days ago
A number of MPs have now been contacted by constituents about the £5 million loan from taxpayer backed Innovate UK to Versarien (VRS) which appears to breach a fact of Innovate UK’s own rules. It seems that now, even chancellor Rishi Sunak is looking into the matter as the letter below demonstrates.
1396 days ago
I am gravely concerned about the soft loan given to Versarien (VRS) by Innovate UK. It seems to me that rules have been broken and taxpayers cash should not be used in this way. I have, therefore, written to my local MP here in Wrexham, Ms Sarah Atherton, asking her to raise this with the minister responsible, Alok Sharma as soon as possible. I urge you to copy this letter below, adapt it for your local use, and contact your MP too urging him or her to act on this matter at once..
1396 days ago
I pointed out yesterday that £5 million of your cash as a taxpayer is going to the serial liars at Versarien (VRS) via Innovate UK when Versarien quite clearly does not qualify for such funding. I have asked Innovate boss Nigel Walker to explain this but he has declined to comment. However, as his tweets below show, Nigel has been very close to Versarien and its corpulent boss Neill Ricketts for three years.
1396 days ago
I realise that Versarien (VRS) boss Neill Ricketts, pictured below, is well connected in Government circles but I simply do not understand how Innovate UK has today agreed to a £5 million loan to his company. Let us be clear, this breaches its own rules. I smell a rat and wonder if Her Majesty;s Loyal opposition might wish to pursue this matter.
