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A couple accused of receiving around £24 million from London Capital & Finance and using it to fund a lavish lifestyle – including luxury travel, jewelery and Mayfair Members' Club membership – have reached a settlement with directors of the failed British investment firm.
Simon and Helen Hume Kendall were accused in High Court proceedings of benefiting from a “Ponzi scheme” that extracted money from 11,600 investors in one of the country's biggest retail savings scandals in recent years.
Court papers show the Hume-Kendall family reached a settlement earlier this month with LCF officials, who filed a civil suit against several individuals connected to the collapse.
Simon Hume Kendall chaired London Oil & Gas, the main company to which LCF lent money before its collapse in 2019.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The directors' case against other defendants, including former company CEO Michael “Andy” Thompson, is ongoing and proceedings are set to continue next week.
LCF has raised about £237 million from investors, promising returns of up to 8 per cent through so-called mini-bonds. Its collapse led to criminal and regulatory investigations as well as a probe into the Financial Conduct Authority's oversight of the company.
Lawyers representing the claimants claimed that LCF was a “Ponzi scheme from the beginning”, using “new investors’ money to pay returns to existing investors”.
Lawyers representing the couple said Simon Hume Kendall “was not a director of LCF . . . in the period since 2015 when the alleged Ponzi scheme is said to have been planned and carried out, according to the defense’s written arguments.
They added that “no accusation of specific knowledge of or participation in intentional wrongdoing has been brought” against Helen Hume-Kendall and that the case officials brought against her had “obvious shortcomings”.
The couple's legal team said LCF's collapse was a “tragedy” but the lawsuit “was not the right way to end the affairs of LCF and London Oil and Gas”.
The company's directors, represented by Mishcon De Reya, said in written submissions that the couple received at least £23.9 million from LCF and spent “substantial sums” on luxury travel and dining at exclusive restaurants.
They said Simon Hume Kendall was given a life membership to Annabelle's Club at a cost of £250,000, made donations to the Conservative Party and acquired property.
Lawyers representing Thompson told the court at the start of proceedings last month that he denied “every claim against him”.
They said in written submissions that LCF “did not engage in any illicit business activities…it conducted a legitimate business that involved raising funds through the issuance of bonds and lending those funds in bona fide transactions on commercial terms.”
