I dont generally publish material like this, but believe the circumstances warrant a concerted effort on our part to warn everyone we know who might be seduced by promises of great oil prospects, about an experience we recently had with Wil Divine of Concessions International in California. He took money but delivered nothing. He agreed to deal with us on an exclusive basis but was dealing with others behind our backs. His initial estimates of costs were so far off the mark that I cant help wondering if he intentionally mislead us.
If Wil Divine comes to you looking for money, all I can say is beware! Remember this guy!
Here are the facts. After you read them you can decide if you are prepared to do business with someone who does business this way. I think he has proven to be high risk, but as I say you can decide.
Wil Divine came to us in June with a proposal to secure an oil deal in Iraq. He told us that deposits likely to produce less than 25,000 barrels per day were being handled by the provinces instead of the Iraqi oil ministry and that there were many deposits available that could be acquired with very little effort and/or risk. Whats more, he told us that it would cost no more than $20,000 to send him over to Iraq to secure a number of these deposits and set up JVs with the Iraqi provinces concerned. We signed an agreement to solidify the arrangements. Wil told us that our deal was exclusive to us and that he was our guy in Iraq.
Following the signing of the agreement, we sent him the requested $20,000. Once Wil was in Iraq, he told us within days, he had signed several MOUs with provincial authorities. He sent us maps of the areas he was supposedly visiting and told us his preferred targets. Obviously we were happy to hear about the targets and the signed MOUs and told him we were keen to conclude a deal. Following this, Will very quickly began asking for more money; he needed to hire someone to assist him, he needed a security team, he needed to buy a vehicle, he needed an office in Iraq, he needed an Iraqi company set up. Further money was sent.in fact we ended up providing close to $78,000 before discovering he was busy soliciting other merchant and investment banks etc. To fund an oil deal in Iraq. When we heard this news, we immediately pulled out of the deal with him.
Despite numerous requests we never saw any signed MOUs nor any other evidence that he was doing what he promised or that he was even in Iraq. Daily calls were via Skype so it was impossible to determine his location. We asked for receipts, none arrived. We asked for a budget and received something that was so lacking in detail and out of touch with reality that it could not be taken seriously.
When we confronted him about his double dealing with other investors, he initially denied it. When we gave him names, he danced around and tried to sidestep it with excuses about the fact that we had not provided him with sufficient money and that our resistance to sending more money was because of an inability to provide more funds.
When we asked for our money back he immediately told us he would pay us back but said he needed time. We agreed to accommodate him and that he could pay us $10,000 immediately and $5,000 per month until it was paid off. However no money was returned despite sending a series of lawyers demand letters. When he started telling us we could not win a case against him and that all he could pay was $2,000per month, we realized he had no intention of settling. To date no money has been returned and no proof of any business activity in Iraq on our behalf has been received.
I dont believe we were negligent in how we set up this deal with Wil Divine, so in my opinion, doing business with Will Divine and Concessions International carries a serious risk that you will spend money with no return.
Are you prepared to risk that something similar will happen to you?
0 comments