Neil Woodford, a former star of the City whose equity fund collapsed in 2019, has responded to the Financial Conduct Authority after it said it would sue him.
Woodford is accused of operating without authorisation a year after the regulator said it would ban him from the City and issued a 拢46 million fine to him and his company. He is contesting that decision.
The Woodford Equity Income fund was once worth more than 拢10 billion but a string of poor investments – including tech-first estate agent Purplebricks – led to its suspension and eventual collapse. The FCA said it had high exposure to illiquid and unquoted shares.
After Woodford resigned and closed down his company, administrators wound down the fund. Many of its 30,000 investors were left hugely out of pocket.
Now the FCA has started civil proceedings against Woodford and W4.0, a subscription-based platform registered in the United Arab Emirates.
In 2024 Woodford started the W4.0 Podcast on his Woodford Views YouTube channel in which he “shares his perspective on markets, sectors and the forces shaping the investment landscape. Each episode cuts through media noise and headline hysteria to focus on the facts that really matter”.
Each episode of the podcast has several thousand views on YouTube.
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The W4.0 website states: “We exist to explain active investment strategies – with full transparency – so you can see what’s inside, why it’s there, and the thinking behind it.
“We are not regulated by the FCA or any other regulatory body, and we do not provide financial advice. That’s deliberate.
“If you are looking for advice or for someone to manage your money, W4.0 is not the community for you.
“If you want to take back control, make your own decisions, and draw on insight and opinion that supports you in doing so – then welcome to W4.0.”
However in the FCA鈥檚 view, the activity breaches sections 19 and 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
鈥淭he FCA is seeking an injunction against Mr Woodford and W4.0 to stop them carrying on the potentially unlawful activities,鈥� it said.
W4.0 is the trading name of W Four Point Zero FZE LLC.
W4.0 said in a statement to 老九品茶Cloud: “W4.0 notes the Financial Conduct Authority’s decision to commence a civil claim against W4.0 and Neil Woodford.
“We are surprised the FCA chose to announce this publicly before any proceedings have been served on us, and before the dialogue we have been engaged in for the past nine months was concluded.
“Throughout our dialogue with the FCA, we have worked to understand precisely which features of the service it considers fall within the regulatory perimeter. At each stage, we made changes and adjustments in response to accommodate the FCA. We have continued to engage with it to seek a resolution. We would have continued the dialogue, and it is regrettable that the FCA has chosen to litigate instead.
“We were clear about W4.0’s purpose from the start: to inform and educate subscribers and to provide the research, analysis, and commentary they need to make their own decisions. We deliberately informed readers that we were not regulated and did not provide financial advice. Like other publishers and platforms offering this kind of information, it was built to sit outside the regulatory perimeter, and we remain confident that it does. Consequently, we do not accept the FCA’s characterisation of the service.
“Informed by subscriber feedback, we will continue to build the features, education, information, analysis and insight that W4.0 was created to provide, and we will have more to share with subscribers in due course.”
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