Nov 30 2005
The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has presented a petition in the High Court to wind up Treasure Traders Corporation Ltd in the public interest.

The company operated a 'Pirate Ship' themed pyramid selling scheme.

Investors paid £1,200 to sign up and were told to recruit further members of a ship 'crew'. They would move up to the position of 'captain' depending on how many recruits they could enrol.

Once the 'ship' had a full crew of eight members they were told to 'sail the high seas searching for gold' by taking a profit share of further investments.

In fact, many members of this scheme are receiving no return on their investment.

The petition was presented following an investigation carried out by the Department's Companies Investigation Branch (CIB) under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985. The petition is listed for hearing on 14 December 2005.

On the application of the Secretary of State, the Court has appointed the Official Receiver as provisional liquidator of the company pending the hearing of the petition.

No further information will be made available until that time.

The registered office of the company is 1 Broadway, Hammersmith, London W6 9DL. The sole director is Peter Kippax and the company secretary is Robert Pulleng.

The petition was presented on 4 November 2005 under Section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Official Receiver was appointed provisional liquidator on 25 November 2005.

The role of the Official Receiver as provisional liquidator is to protect and preserve the assets and financial records of the company.

All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to:

THE OFFICIAL RECEIVER
The Insolvency Service
Public Interest Unit
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
WC1B 3SS
Tel No: 0207 637 1110

Further information on the work of CIB is available from http://www.dti.gov.uk/cld/comp_inv.htm