Real secret behind the 'millionaire' promises

Darren Winters advertises his easy road to making a fortune from shares schemes on radio. He takes space in newspapers; and he sends out mailshots which include free tickets for his "Winters Investment Network" seminars.

Those who attend his free "tutorials" - and he holds around 10 in the London area in a typical month - are told they can become a millionaire with minimal effort and even less capital by following his "winning" stock market investment formula.

Many spend up to £3,100 to attend an additional weekend course held once a month. With up to 500 attending each time, according to his office, he could be netting around £1.5m although most pay discounted rates. Besides all this, Winters also says he is a full-time shares trader as well as spending time sunning himself in the Caribbean.

But Winters may not be all he seems. A Jobs & Money investigation this week reveals that he was a director of a company that collapsed owing creditors £250,000.

At the seminars, which Jobs & Money has attended, Winters exudes confidence as he works his audience into admiration for his money minting skills. He sells himself heavily to the 150 or so who turn up at each free "seminar" seeking a quick escape from humdrum earnings to amazing wealth.

And the proof, Winters says, is that as well as bestriding stock market investment like a colossus, he himself made a fortune from selling a software company. He claims that investing the payout from this sale was a defining moment after which he was determined to become one of the greatest investment traders.

Winters has never named this company nor given any further details either at the seminars or in response to questions from Jobs & Money.

But in June 1998, as the information technology boom was moving into overdrive, Winters became a director of the then newly incorporated Amicus Solutions, a software firm based in Exeter. Amicus was involved in software for travel agencies. Just over two years later, in October 2000, Amicus ceased trading, making all of its staff redundant.

On December 21, 2000, an Exeter firm was appointed as liquidator of Amicus Solution.

Documents show Amicus owed £257,562 to creditors led by the Inland Revenue which wanted £37,000 and Customs & Excise, whose unpaid bill amounted to £13,149.

The liquidators sold the software and client database to Dolphin Dynamics for £31,920. The Inland Revenue grabbed office furniture and other items under a distraint order; the landlord recovered the property on default; and the firm's cars were repossessed by Ford Credit.

Darren Winters' current internet site makes no mention of Amicus in which he held 333 of the 1,000 shares issued. But it does say of part of the period when he was a director: "From 1997 to 1999, he [Winters] spent an average of 80 hours a week, researching, testing and applying everything he learnt [from studying "investment for over 12 years"]."

Neither does Amicus feature in his official return to Companies House for his current company, Winters Investment Network (WIN).

"Not stating previous directorships from the past five years whether the directorship is current, resigned or has ended due to a company being liquidated or dissolved is a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment and/or a fine," says Jonathan Pickworth, a partner specialising in company law at solicitors DLA.

His date of birth has also changed. Amicus returns show he was born on March 3, 1972. But documents from WIN (which has no relationship to any similar named firm) show March 3, 1973.

Companies House uses date of birth to identify directors with otherwise similar names.

Records show the same signature on documents for both Amicus and WIN, where Winters holds 99 out of 100 shares issued. The other share is owned by Tatjana Valujeva, 27, a naturalised Estonian with whom Winters shares a home address. So Winters' August 2002 claim to have invested for "over 12 years" suggests he started at just 17 years old.

Jobs & Money tried to contact Winters this week. "I haven't got a number for him and there is no one here who can help you," said a Winters Investment Network person who refused to give his name.

The Financial Services Authority does not regulate WIN as WIN only offers "investment tutorials" and not investment advice.

• Money

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