Three investments in off-plan property firm Arck totalling £45,000 were too high risk and complex for a client, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has ruled, despite the adviser's claims he had previously invested in similar schemes.
Arck - which involved a second party buying a plot from Arck and then Arck undertaking to buy it back after a certain period - was "an unusual and complex arrangement" that was "unlikely to be easily understood by anyone other than a sophisticated investor", the FOS said. The ruling - which at this stage is provisional and not a final decision - may pave the way for other unsophisticated Arck investors to claim they received poor advice. Arck used advisers to market unregulated property development investments in locations such as Cape Verde, offering high returns with no risk to capi...
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