‘Distressed’ sale of assets related to Dolphin Trust took place in 2017

Private equity firm Vordere acquired properties from now-bankrupt Dolphin two years before Irish investors alerted to problems with investments worth €107m

Dolphin Trust was founded by Charles Smethurst, who is being investigated by the Hanover public prosecutor’s office on foot of a criminal complaint.

A “distressed” sale of assets related to the collapsed Dolphin Trust property group occurred in 2017, correspondence from the company that acquired them shows.

Vordere Plc, a London-based small cap private equity firm, acquired properties from Dolphin Trust in 2017 in what it described to its shareholders as a distressed sale.

This was two years before Irish investors, from whom Dolphin Trust raised over €107 million that is now in doubt, were alerted to problems ...