It wasn't clear to me whether ther Philips' engaged their lawyer to look over the orginal new share agreement, who should have advised them of the risks. The mo

It wasn't clear to me whether ther Philips' engaged their lawyer to look over the orginal new share agreement, who should have advised them of the risks. The most savvy business people I know treat every deal as an objective 3rd party thing and have clear personal boundaries. The mother of the current Prime Minister being involved could have been an alarm bell as she has a vulnerable history, and fits the archetype of the sort of high profile / low judgment person a scammer like that would leverage. It's almost always the kooky ones who let the vampires in. There is also a low-level scam where "investors," find distressed businesses, take on enough shares to get access the bank accounts, and loot the accounts, sometimes after managing to get a bank loan for whatever "improvements" they were going to make. It's not small, as it's tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it works because when they're done, the victims can't even afford the lawyers to sue them for it.