The High Court has ordered the liquidation of Micasa WW Ltd. and Remultex Ltd. in the interest of the public, and the Official Receiver has been designated as the firms’ liquidator.
Micasa saw around £1.3 million move through its accounts from February 2019, when it first began operations, until December 2020, according to an Insolvency Service inquiry.
Although it was not feasible to confirm if the company was engaging in genuine trade activity due to the absence of accounting documents, it had been recognized as possibly being engaged in a bitcoin fraud.
There was no indication that the firm qualified under the scheme’s regulations, but investigators did discover that it had obtained a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan (BBL).
Remultex Ltd., which seems to have begun operations in December 2019, received almost the whole BBL. Although it was equally impossible for investigators to determine that Remultex was eligible for the BBL, the business still obtained its own BBL of £30,000. Remultex received payments from three additional businesses in addition to the Bounce Back Loan cash it got from Micasa, amounting to roughly £250,000 by December 2020. Nearly all of this was taken out of the company in cash.
Similar to Micasa, Remultex’s transactions were not supported by any accounting records.
Judge Woodward, sitting in the High Court in Manchester, agreed that shutting down the businesses was in the public interest given that both of them operated with a lack of commercial integrity and had collected public funds to which they may not have been entitled.
The Official Receiver as Liquidator’s tasks include working to recover and sell the company’s assets so that creditors may get their money back.
The Insolvency Service’s Chief Investigator, David Hope, stated:
These businesses did not conduct their business in a transparent manner and did not keep accurate financial records.
Through the Bounce Back Loan program, there is no proof that they were entitled to government money, and Micasa was probably using the money to smuggle cryptocurrencies.
Remarks for editors
Micasa WW Ltd., has the business ID 11673352.
Remultex Ltd., has the business ID 12284381.
The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 16th Floor, 1 Westfield Avenue, Stratford, London, E20 1HZ should receive any public inquiries on the firms’ business issues. Phone number: 0300 678 0015 Send an email to piu.or@insolvency.gov.uk.
On behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, Company Investigations, a division of the Insolvency Service, conducts private fact-finding investigations into the operations of active limited businesses in the UK (BEIS). You may find more details about current corporate investigations here.