A way of life app backed by Sarah Ferguson obtained greater than £1m of taxpayers’ cash however collapsed with out ever launching a product, in keeping with paperwork filed this week.
vVoosh was based by Manuel Fernandez, an in depth good friend of Ms Ferguson, who as soon as described herself as an “ambassador” for the corporate and was an investor.
It promised to provide customers “the power to Find, Plan, Share, Live, and Remember all the things you love to do – and those you’re yet to try.”
Ms Ferguson and Mr Fernandez didn’t reply to requests for remark.
vVoosh was put into administration final month – and its failure will increase additional questions concerning the judgement of the previous duchess and the enterprise relationships she pursued.
Over the years the corporate raised roughly £9m, together with greater than £1m from the UK authorities by analysis and improvement tax credit, in keeping with paperwork filed by the administrator.
It paid groups within the UK after which India to work on the app, however by no means launched it, and so had no revenue to fund additional improvement.
Progress on the app stopped when the Indian contractor threatened authorized motion.
The administrator’s report describes a “breakdown in communication between the current directors/major creditors and the founder [Mr Fernandez]who ceased communication following [his] resignation as a director earlier in the year”.
The report says that the corporate is owed £324,609 by a former director. This is believed to be Mr Fernandez, who’s the one director to depart the corporate since 2019.
Last summer season he offered his home in North London for £1.3m, in keeping with Land Registry paperwork, and is believed to have left the UK.
Meanwhile, vVoosh owes £50,000 to considered one of Ms Ferguson’s corporations, La Luna Investments, which additionally held just below 1% of the corporate’s shares.
Documents present the agency had greater than 60 different small shareholders – many with addresses in Essex and London, although a number of American addresses additionally seem.
The directors mentioned that there was “significant uncertainty” over how a lot cash the corporate’s collectors would get again as soon as the corporate was wound up.
One of the agency’s American backers, Mark Guzy, has put greater than £400,000 into the corporate to protect “certain essential services” and defend the worth of its software program platform, which is the corporate’s primary remaining asset.
vVoosh initially supposed to share 10% of its earnings with a charitable basis.
The BBC understands that the Charity Commission has now begun the method of eradicating vVoosh Charitable Foundation from the register of charities, on the premise that it doesn’t function.
It is greater than four-and-a-half years overdue with its reporting.
HMRC declined to reply to questions concerning the tax credit. Mr Guzy and the opposite administrators of vVoosh declined to remark.
Earlier this month Mr Fernandez denied taking cash out of the agency, in keeping with the Times.
He informed the newspaper that allegation can be “disproven in the course of legal proceedings”.
Ms Ferguson, 66, misplaced her duchess title when her former husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, relinquished use of his Duke of York title over his hyperlinks with Epstein. He has since been stripped of the title of prince as effectively.
Last month it emerged {that a} crypto-currency mining agency had agreed to pay her as much as £1.4m for appearing as a “brand ambassador” – that agency additionally failed, allegedly costing buyers hundreds of thousands. Its co-founder denied misconduct and mentioned he was working to repay backers.
In September, quite a lot of charities dropped her as a patron or ambassador after an e mail from 2011 revealed that she referred to as intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein her “supreme friend” and appeared to apologise for her public criticism of him.
Mr Fernandez went to highschool at Billericay in Essex, and was a soldier within the Royal Anglian Regiment, in keeping with his LinkedIn profile.
He then held senior gross sales roles at quite a lot of tech corporations earlier than founding vVoosh in 2010.
He was usually photographed with the then duchess in 2015 and 2016, they usually attended Sir Bob Geldof’s wedding ceremony collectively, however she denied rumours they have been a pair, saying they have been simply “good friends”.
Correction 6 December: An earlier model included monetary figures for vVoosh charitable basis, taken from the Charity Commission web site, however the charity by no means traded.
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