Agency inadvertently helped 'fraudster' businessman

A Guernsey government agency helped a businessman who planned to relocate to the island despite him being accused of fraud in London's High Court in 2015, a BBC investigation has found.

Investment professional Simon Davies, 55, was a prominent client of Locate Guernsey and spoke at one of its events in January 2017.

But in August 2016, High Court judge had ordered Davies to pay £1.7m, after he failed to file a defence to a civil claim alleging he had committed "substantial property frauds", court documents show.

Locate Guernsey told the BBC none of its current team worked for the organisation at the time it assisted Davies and it had "limited knowledge of the circumstances".

At the 25 January 2017 event, Davies spoke about how he and his business, a "fintech consultancy" had relocated to Guernsey.

Afterwards, Davies told a BBC reporter: "Locate Guernsey have run the whole process for us, in terms of both the corporate and personal immigration.

"They have been fundamental, all the way down to meeting my family, meeting my wife, meeting my children.

"Without Locate Guernsey we wouldn't be here."

Locate Guernsey was launched by the States Of Guernsey in early 2016 with the remit of attracting wealthy people to move to the low-tax island.

But Davies' time in Guernsey came into focus after finance professionals later told the BBC they believed they were the victims of a financial scam, orchestrated by him and his company in Dubai in 2025.

Participants in his Aucta Accelerator Programme, for emerging fund managers, paid thousands of pounds on the basis of offers of investment upon graduation.

They told BBC File on 4 Investigates that investment never materialised, costing participants an estimated total of £500,000 in fees as a group.

A UAE government official, who Davies' claimed was a financial backer of the programme, told the BBC that despite limited contact they had never had a business relationship with Davies or been involved with the programme.

A spokesman for Aucta, Davies' company, told the BBC: "The allegation that the emerging fund manager accelerator programme we operated in 2025 was a scam is entirely false."

They added: "Participants joined under written terms confirming there was no guarantee of capital, investment or any specific fundraising outcome."

The BBC asked Locate Guernsey a series of questions about what background checks were carried out on Davies.

Records from the High Court proceedings show Davies breached freezing orders on his assets, including selling an Aston Martin car and by failing to disclose a Guernsey bank account.

Jo Stoddart, director of Locate Guernsey, said: 'Neither I nor any current member of the team worked for Locate at the time, so we have limited knowledge about the circumstances by which this individual moved to the island.

"We have looked back over our records and cannot find anything that would show what due diligence took place.

"All I can state with certainty is that Locate Guernsey, as it is today, carries out due diligence on everyone we work with who speaks at any of our events."

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