Fraud or fantasy? The £45billion empire run from a terraced house in Bolton

Several businesses with income and assets worth billions of pounds are registered at a terraced house on Chorley Old Road in Bolton.
The businesses all purport to be major corporations with multiple filings of audited accounts. 1 Stallion Limited claims to be in the oil and gas exploration sector with £4bn of assets, a £12.5bn turnover and offices on four continents. Similarly Avantulo SA Ltd has filed accounts claiming £26bn of turnover and £12.5bn share capital.
Also registered at that same address is e-bank Ltd, which claims to make £952m of turnover, mainly in the United Arab Emirates, and which identifies itself as a bank in its formal description (SIC code 64191). However, to be an actual bank requires a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority, yet no trace of the business exists.
Also previously registered at the address, but now dissolved, is Kinpro Holding GmbH Limited which claims that an entity with a similar name to an actual advisory firm from Abu Dhabi has invested £8.5bn into it.
Next door is XYZ Investment Holdings Ltd (formerly Stallion Holdings Ltd) which claims to have £7bn of assets, £2.5bn of sales and no plausible commentary that describes what the business actually does.
These companies all falsely claim to be audited by the same firm as 1 Stallion Limited.
The existence of these companies and their filing history has come to light after researcher Dan Neidle from Tax Policy Associates analysed data from Companies House to highlight the widespread abuse of the system.
Neidle has also established that although the filings indicate accounts which appear to have been filed by a named auditor, they are fake.
1 Stallion claims to be owned by a British citizen, who lives at that address, and filed documents claim she holds £4bn worth of shares.
Neidle says: “It is hard to see what the point of these companies is. It might be fraud. It could also be the product of someone’s fantasy.”
He told TheBusinessDesk.com: “1 Stallion Ltd is a worrying case of a company with superficially plausible filed accounts, including a forged audit certificate. It seems fairly clear several criminal offences have been committed; but there’s no sign of any enforcement action. If the rules aren’t enforced, they might as well not exist.”
The house in question is currently applying to Bolton Council for a retrospective change of use to a house of multiple occupation. The applicant is listed Stallion Financial Holdings Ltd, which doesn’t appear to exist.
The revelation on the fake filings is just the latest to highlight the deficiencies at Companies House.
Last year theBusinessDesk.com reported that the corporate registration service was cracking down on fake filings after we revealed a number of “corporate cuckooing” scams where genuine businesses had their identities hijacked by scammers.
But the scam was enabled by using legitimate company names and registrations to give the veneer of respectability and to use an official company registration to access the UK banking system.
Experts have warned that new enforcement powers granted to Companies House still leave law-abiding businesses and consumers woefully unprotected from scammers and fraudsters who can open new companies with hardly any worthwhile checks.
However, Companies House insists a new regime under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 will enable their enforcement officials to tackle economic crime.
Companies House said, on being presented with the discovery of the fake or fantasy filings: “We take fraud against the register seriously and all allegations are fully investigated.
“Companies are responsible for filing accounts that are compliant with the law. Where incorrect, suspicious, or fraudulent filings are made, we will take appropriate action. We proactively share information with other relevant government agencies and law enforcement.
“We are developing systems and processes to enable more checks to determine the accuracy of information delivered to us before it is placed on the register.”