Arch keeps mum on funds’ assets as Ward raises the question of fraud

Arch Financial Products has failed to break its silence over the position of £400 million of assets in the suspended Arch Cru fund range, despite Cru investor committee chairman Kevan Ward last week raising the question of fraud.

Ward told a press briefing last week that Cru investors were looking for confirmation there had been no fraud in the running of the suspended Arch Cru fund range.

He said: ‘One of the very early sets of questions from clients when the funds were suspended was “Does that mean someone has buggered off with my money?”. Madoff had just been sent to jail and people were saying “am I involved in something like that?”.

‘For the clients of the IFAs, it was one of the first things they brought up, but I have no reason to suspect anything like that is going on.’

Fund administrator Capita has told investors the fund suspension announced on 13 March has been extended until the end of May at the earliest.

Cru founder Jon Maguire attacked fund managers Arch and Capita for failing to give investors enough information about the situation of the assets making up the fund.

Maguire complained that neither Arch, Capita or the Financial Services Authority had said ‘one word’ about ‘the existence or viability of the funds’ underlying assets'.

‘There is no way, on God’s earth, we are going to wait until the end of May to get a statement from Arch and Capita on this point,’ he said.

Although now critical of the level of information available on the funds’ assets, Maguire is understood to have sat on the investment committee for the funds and, along with Marc Ainscough, Cru managing director, received monthly briefings from Arch.

Arch would not comment on any aspects New Model Adviser® raised, only to say that Maguire had no role in the funds’ investment decisions.

A Capita spokeswoman defended the level of information it had given to investors.

‘You will appreciate that there are some questions for which we don’t yet have answers but CFM [Capita Fund Managers] has written, in detail, to all investors, has dealt with a large number of technical and other enquiries from investors and IFAs, and has endeavoured to answer all the questions it can while the review is ongoing,’ she said.