Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management 

A summary of what happened?

Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish were directors of Bentley-Leek Financial Management, a Surrey-based financial advisory firm. In October 2013, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined them a total of £885,000 and banned them from holding any position in a financial firm due to serious misconduct.

Major Concerns and Accusations:

1. Misleading Clients About Investment Risks: Between March 2004 and November 2010, Bentley-Leek and Dervish advised over 300 clients to invest more than £35 million in various property developments. They assured clients of guaranteed returns ranging from 6% to 18%, with some investors being promised up to 50%. These assurances were misleading, as the investments were high-risk and not guaranteed.
2. Failure to Disclose Conflicts of Interest: The advisers did not adequately inform clients that they were directors and owners of some of the property development companies they recommended for investment. This lack of transparency created significant conflicts of interest, as they stood to benefit personally from the investments they were promoting.
3. Continuing to Advise Despite Financial Difficulties: By June 2009, both men were aware that the property investment companies were facing financial difficulties due to market downturns and tightening bank lending. Despite this knowledge, they continued to advise clients to invest, leading to substantial losses for many investors. Bentley-Leek Financial Management entered administration and insolvency by November 2011.

These actions led to significant financial losses for clients and resulted in the FCA’s enforcement actions against Bentley-Leek and Dervish.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management trying to hide?

Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management ‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  may be trying to remove from the internet –

Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish, once prominent figures in financial advisory, were the directors of Bentley-Leek Financial Management, a Surrey-based firm that focused on investment guidance and wealth management. The two advisers held the trust of over 300 clients, many of whom invested substantial amounts in property development ventures recommended by the firm. However, an investigation led by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) uncovered significant misconduct, ultimately leading to fines, bans, and a scandal that would shake the UK’s financial advisory community.

1. Misleading Clients About Investment Risks

One of the primary allegations against Bentley-Leek and Dervish was their misleading assurances to clients regarding the safety and profitability of their investments. Between March 2004 and November 2010, Bentley-Leek Financial Management advised clients to invest over £35 million in a series of property development ventures. During this period, the two advisers reportedly guaranteed returns ranging from 6% to 18%, and in some cases even suggested potential returns as high as 50%.

These guarantees led many investors to believe that their money was secure and would yield substantial profits. However, the reality was that these investments were high-risk and could not be guaranteed in the manner Bentley-Leek and Dervish had suggested. When the property investments began underperforming, many clients faced significant financial losses. The FCA concluded that these guarantees constituted serious misrepresentations, as clients were never fully informed of the risks involved, leading to substantial financial harm.

2. Failure to Disclose Conflicts of Interest

Another major concern in this case was the advisers’ failure to disclose critical conflicts of interest to their clients. Bentley-Leek and Dervish were not only financial advisers recommending property development ventures but also directors and part-owners of the very property development companies they encouraged clients to invest in. This dual role created a significant conflict of interest, as Bentley-Leek and Dervish stood to benefit directly from their clients’ investments, which raised questions about the objectivity of their advice.

Clients were not adequately informed about this relationship, leaving them in the dark regarding the advisers’ personal financial stakes in these developments. By not disclosing these conflicts, Bentley-Leek and Dervish compromised their fiduciary responsibility to their clients, raising serious ethical concerns. This lack of transparency undermined the clients’ ability to make informed decisions and called into question the integrity of Bentley-Leek Financial Management’s investment recommendations.

3. Continuing to Recommend Investments Despite Financial Difficulties

The misconduct allegations grew even more serious as details emerged about the financial difficulties facing the property development companies Bentley-Leek and Dervish promoted. By June 2009, both men were aware that these companies were struggling due to market downturns and a tightening in bank lending. Despite this knowledge, they continued to advise clients to invest in these ventures, effectively putting client money at risk to prop up failing developments.

As a result, many clients lost significant sums of money, as the investments ultimately underperformed or collapsed. Bentley-Leek Financial Management itself faced financial turmoil, entering administration in 2011 due to insolvency. This final stage of the scandal highlighted what the FCA deemed reckless behavior, as the two advisers ignored the looming risks to protect their personal interests and those of their associated development companies.

FCA Sanctions and Financial Penalties

In response to the misconduct uncovered, the FCA imposed severe penalties on both Bentley-Leek and Dervish. The two men were collectively fined £885,000, and the FCA banned them from holding any roles within the financial industry. The fines reflected the financial harm caused to clients and the gravity of the breaches in trust and ethical standards. The FCA’s action underscored its commitment to holding financial advisers accountable and protecting consumers from similar practices.

The FCA’s ruling not only imposed financial consequences but also served as a message to the financial industry that such misconduct would not be tolerated. The bans on Bentley-Leek and Dervish marked a decisive action aimed at restoring trust within the financial advisory sector and served as a warning to other advisers about the consequences of compromising client interests.

Conclusion: The Legacy of Bentley-Leek and Dervish’s Actions

The actions of Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish have left an indelible mark on the financial advisory community. Their case serves as a stark example of the potential for abuse of trust when advisers prioritize personal gain over the welfare of their clients. The scandal surrounding Bentley-Leek Financial Management has prompted calls for greater transparency, stricter regulations, and enhanced oversight within the advisory industry to prevent similar misconduct.

The story of Bentley-Leek and Dervish has also had a broader impact on clients, who have become increasingly cautious and skeptical of financial advisers. Investors now recognize the importance of due diligence, ensuring that those who manage their investments are held to the highest ethical standards and that any conflicts of interest are disclosed openly.

Summary of Key Allegations and Actions:

1. Misleading Investment Risks: Bentley-Leek and Dervish provided assurances of guaranteed returns on high-risk property investments, misleading clients about the security of their funds.
2. Conflict of Interest: The two advisers failed to disclose their roles as directors and part-owners of the property development companies, compromising their objectivity and fiduciary duty to clients.
3. Reckless Advising Amid Financial Difficulties: Despite knowing of their property companies’ financial instability, they continued to recommend these high-risk investments, leading to substantial client losses.

The consequences of these actions—significant financial losses for clients, regulatory fines, and lifetime bans—highlight the critical importance of trust, transparency, and ethical behavior within financial services.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  (or actors working on behalf of Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management ), we will inform Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management , initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management 

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management , ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  is in great company ….

What else is Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management ] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Mark Bentley-Leek and Mustafa Dervish at Bentley Leek Financial Management  that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.