This hasn’t been a good week for John McCabe with news that NAMA has had receivers appointed to four of his companies, just ahead of a winding up application by a supplier of manpower, MCR Personnel. As for John himself, it seems he is presently in the Middle East as reported on here, but he is in Bahrain, not Oman. And he is not involved in the property business but is in fact trying to retrieve an “advance fee” paid to a company called Western Gulf Advisory or “WGA” which appeared as a White Knight in 2010 with the prospect of investing €360m in McCabe’s companies but instead are understood to have demanded a €2m fee, which John now wants back.
In mid-2011, Britain’s Daily Mail carried a report which said that at least three businessmen were claiming that fees had been paid to WGA for loans which had never materialised. One of the businessmen was Australian property developer Keith Johnson who, according to the newspaper had paid A$2.45m to WGA for “setting up the loans”, some A$155m which were ultimately not advanced. The Sydney Morning Herald separately reported that a “group of Australian businessmen” had paid over A$100m for loans which again, never materialised, and that WGA bank accounts in Bahrain had been successfully frozen by Keith Johnson.
Frauds which involve upfront or advance fees paid over to secure much bigger funds, have been associated with Nigeria in the past where they have their own criminal code, 419. Typically it would have been the widow of a Nigerian general wanting to spirit millions out of the country to your bank account, if only you’d provide a few thousand up front to cover administration!
WGA is described as a Swiss-Bahraini based provider of loan and equity finance. Their website carries a contact address in Holland but no phone number or email address. The only contact email address on the website is career@westerngulfadvisory.com and a request for comment on this matter has not received a response.There are no longer any press releases and the only news shown on what is a flashy website is from February 2011. WGA was founded by Ahsan Ali Syed (pictured below), a 40-year old Indian national who the Sydney Morning Herald describes as “the Bernie Madoff of India”
A request for comment was also made to McCabe Builders, but none was received at time of writing.
NAMA Wine Lake 
depressing reading this and the prior post involving another alleged fraud.
Its Friday,first the ECB mug you,then you get picked off individually by charlatans and snake oil salesman.Whatever happened to …………
“Thus did the great thief set his lure for the lesser.” – Tolkien
To the best of my knowledge John McCabe is the only one to be caught be this particular group of conmen, although I am aware of a well known Dublin rally driver cum builder who was caught for €300,000 by the Arab version of this sting.
For my own part, I have met three charming (an essential ingredient) charlatans peddling unlimited “funds” from Saudi and China over the last two years. One Kerryman got into the spirit of the occasion and lifted it to a new level by dressing in what looked like his bed-sheet – converted to a white cassock, tied around the middle with corded Kerry colours, and posing as an Arab. His story was that he had emigrated to Kuwait twenty years previously and married a member of the royal Al-Sabah family (The Chinese version of this usually cites the daughter of a general in the army).
When people are desperate, they are vulnerable; and there will always be vultures around to take advantage of those vulnerabilities. They befriend you, ask you to family events such as special birthdays or weddings, usually repeated every month for each “mark” and attended only by the family and you (in order to show how special you are) …… and then they lift your money.
There’ve been quite a few that were courted by this group. Not all succumbed. There are a few other Africans about, daughters and sons of sub Equatorial despots
OMF. all you seem to want is that these guys pay back what’s owed. That’s what they want to do. Hence the desperation that drives them into the arms of these guys. Muppetry of a comment.
The McCabes father and son are gentlemen. Treated appallingly by NAMA, I wish them the best wherever they can create employment and return taxes to a foreign exchequer. Theyre better off out of this Septic Isle, this Throne of Receivers!
If this wasn’t a scam, who do you think would have ultimately ended up paying back that loan? Pro-tip: It probably wouldn’t have been McCabe.
So wstt, it seems all you have to do is arrive in the US dressed as a leprachaun. Tell some desperado that you have a pot of gold hidden in an empty building in Sandyford…if they buy the building, you can retrieve the gold, and give them 50…no wait, 70 per cent and they can keep the building too.
A new career awaits.
NAMA please feel free to borrow this suggestion. It is a tried and trusted method in your industry.
Upfront fees are quite common,to rate lock for example.We almost got caught when a mortgage company went down,had significant points up rate locked,broker called told us they were sending it back..He laughed when we threatened to sue his company and the lender,they did not last the week.
It’s awful to prey on the vulnerable and make false promises,unlike they will recover anything here.
Madoff was a shock as quite a lot of his investors were extremely sophisticated hard headed NY types.One acquaintance was embarrassed that Bernie refused to take his money,he is the type that asks lots of questions.
Good luck John,all the best if it sounds too good to be true…..
Here you go OMF this will brighten your day,SBP running with a story that NAMA has sought a High Court action to prevent McCabe Builders possibly moving assets abroad.
Involves the rather paltry amount of 6.25 million and according to the story,is one few times NAMA has moved against a client regarding alleged asset movement.
Sorry behind paywall,rather weird business strategy by SBT you would think they would want all the readers they could get even for free !
http://www.businesspost.ie/