Courington Law - downtown Boston? (appointed, fit in, brokers)

[red_pin]

Thanks for all your help.
It was actually my father who had received an email from them, claiming that they were able to reclaim some lost share money from a US company that he had invested in. BTW, I've held a US share account in the past and this email looks 'perfect' - it is well written and does not come across as fake in any way.

I told him that it all looks too good to be true, though the website looks good, the more you read it, the language appears 'woolly'.

@ChicagoLiz - I also googled the firm - its the lack of search results that made me suspicious too.

He has had a telephone conversation with them (a guy with an English accent) so their scam appears pretty tight.

My father is fairly switched on to these sort of things and glad he raised it with me and I'm sure other people will fall foul of these tactics.

@SuchSweetThunder - I guess this is the damning evidence. If there are no attorneys registered with that name, then is a fake. Thanks for checking (however you did it!)

Anyway, many thanks to everyone who has posted on this thread.

[cmsanfo]

I have just been contacted in the UK from a guy named Barry Larrson who claims to be representing A Courington Law firm advising that I may be due some compensation from A company now in liquidation called Pacific Continental which ultimately proved to be very dodgy to say the least. This guy is calling me again tomorrow after sending me some information to apply for the proposed compensation, The number he left me was 001 617 372 9508. I would be very interested in any feedback that anyone may be able to offer. Thanks.

[porterhouse]

99+% these things are scams, steer clear. If you are due any "compensation" it would likely ring a bell on some level.

[timberline742]

Looks sketchy.

[red_pin]

Originally Posted by cmsanfo

I have just been contacted in the UK from a guy named Barry Larrson who claims to be representing A Courington Law firm advising that I may be due some compensation from A company now in liquidation called Pacific Continental which ultimately proved to be very dodgy to say the least. This guy is calling me again tomorrow after sending me some information to apply for the proposed compensation, The number he left me was 001 617 372 9508. I would be very interested in any feedback that anyone may be able to offer. Thanks.

This was the exact same email that my father received. The contact was also Barry Larrson.
The stock that he purchased was also 'dodgy' and that the money due to him was due to the company selling its fixed assets.

The thing that 'smelled' to me was that surely when you sell the fixed assets of the company, the proceeds of such a sale go to those who are owed money. The money does not go to the shareholders - unless there are some specifics of US law regarding liquidation and closing companies I don't understand - maybe a US based person experienced in these type of issues can add more.

[red_pin]

The body of the email contains this....


The investment consortium has contracted our company to handle the liquidation and the contacting of all shareholders on the companies share register which is where we obtained your details from.

Under the laws regarding a voluntary liquidation the majority shareholder is required to have the company’s assets valued by an independent auditors and they ascertain the correct value per share, the liquidating party must then make the offer at the stated value to all the other shareholders, as they already own over 51% of the shares they do not require consent to liquidate but you will need to accept the offer if you would like to receive any payment from the liquidation and show a return from your investment.

Please find attached your relevant Stock Redemption Agreement, prepared by ourselves, which clearly states the amount of compensation that the takeover company is prepared to pay you.

[timberline742]

So, uh, do you own stock in this company they're liquidating? Fishy as heck.

[chicagoliz]

The key point will be if they ever ask for any money. If you were rightfully entitled to some kind of compensation from the liquidation of a company in which you own stock, you would not need to pay any money to get it. Not one penny.

[red_pin]

Originally Posted by chicagoliz

The key point will be if they ever ask for any money. If you were rightfully entitled to some kind of compensation from the liquidation of a company in which you own stock, you would not need to pay any money to get it. Not one penny.

Agreed, but I don't want to encourage them to continue to phone. Let me ask this... In the US, if a company goes into liquidation, do they really reimburse the shareholders? Somehow, I think not. The only reimbursement I could imagine taking place would be to those companies to whom they owe money.

For example, if I owned 'Best Widget Company" selling the best widgets in the world, and outsourced my manufacturing to "Quick Manufacturing Company" I'd be sure to owe them some money for the widgets they'd created for me. Now, I go bankrupt - oops, no money left to pay "Quick Manufacturing Company" for those widgets they made me. I'd imagine that any assets the company owns (eg computers, printers etc) would be sold in order to pay "Quick Manufacturing Company" as well as any others I may owe. They may not get $1 for each dollar the company owes them, they may only get $0.10 per dollar owed, but correct me if I'm wrong, the liquidator wouldn't recompensate the shareholder as the shareholder is owed nothing.

I'm no US liquidation expert though

[chicagoliz]

Yes, but they're paid last. After all other debtors. And usually the shareholder information would already be with the company, as the shareholder registration would have contact information. They would typically be contacted by mail. I guess, theoretically, there could be a last ditch or additional attempt to contact a shareholder via email if other methods were failing. But this wouldn't be typical.

A share holder might get get some money after all of the assets have been liquidated. It might be something like 10 cents on the dollar (or less). Often, though, if the company has reached the point of liquidation, rather than reorganization, the shareholders, who again are paid last, don't get anything. But they might get *something.*

What you'd be better off doing is searching the bankruptcy filing, which would have all of the actions that took place, and the contact information for the bankruptcy trustee handling the bankruptcy. If you or your dad is a registered shareholder, you should have received information pertaining to the bankruptcy filing.