Almost a decade after the collapse of a $57 million property con that duped more than 800 investors, the mastermind behind the Bar Works scam looks finally set to face justice.
Renwick Haddow, 57, was the brains behind Bar Works, which pulled in millions of dollars for a hot-desk remote-working business with properties in New York, San Francisco and Istanbul.
While multiple co-conspirators have either served time or died in prison, Haddow is the last accused to face charges in court.
In an email to victims, lawyers said “the end is finally near” following the submission of a sentencing memorandum by Haddow’s legal team, with a court date set for July 23.
Haddow devised his plan in 2002 after renting out a room for remote working above his local pub in London.
Bar Works units were sold multiple times for between $10,000 and $30,000 each, with the promise of 125 per cent returns.
The scam was described by investigators as “a Ponzi scheme on steroids” and raked in millions from unsuspecting victims around the world.
More than 800 people were enticed to invest from the UAE, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the UK, Singapore, Russia, the US, Portugal, Qatar, Spain, Jordan, Oman and Hong Kong.
Co-conspirators jailed
Haddow's British business partner James Moore died in prison in 2022, three years into an 11-year jail term after being found guilty of conspiracy and wire fraud.
Another man, Savraj “Sam” Gata-Aura, 43, was charged with wire fraud and sentenced to four years in jail in 2020.
Two other Britons, James Robinson, 49, and David Kennedy, 50, were extradited from Spain and jailed for their role in Bar Works.
Robinson and Kennedy headed United Property Group, which led a cabal of agents who sold investments in the doomed scheme and earned about $2 million in commission.
Haddow’s financial adviser, Stephen Allen, was jailed in London in 2021 for 28 months for forging a property trust deed to reduce restitution payments owed to victims.
After going on the run in 2017 when Bar Works collapsed, Haddow was arrested in Tangiers, Morocco.
He was moved between three notoriously violent prisons in Morocco, where he spent nine months behind bars, sharing rat-infested cells with a hole in the ground for a toilet with 20 men.
As the net tightened, US authorities issued extradition orders and federal agents brought Haddow to New York to face wire fraud charges in April 2018.
There he was imprisoned in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre, the same institution that held sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and was shut down in 2021.
Haddow was released and placed under house arrest in April 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic. He has still not yet faced justice.
Multiple postponements and trial delays have frustrated victims while criminal assets have been located and seized around the world, but a new sentencing date could finally bring an end to the saga.
Haddow, who also went by the alias Jonathan Black, had a long history of financial crime.
In 2008, he was disqualified from serving as a director of any UK company for eight years after investors in a previous enterprise lost significant sums of money.
Five years later, the UK Financial Conduct Authority brought a civil action against him for running collective investment schemes that raised £16.9 million through misleading statements to investors and unauthorised investment schemes.
Web of businesses
In 2014, Haddow established InCrowd, a crowdfunding portal for venture capitalists based in Delaware, US.
A stateside online Bitcoin trading platform followed later that year, with Haddow named company president, raising $36 million from investors.
Another scam company in Haddow’s network was Capital Carbon Credits, which offered greenwashing investments generated from land in Sierra Leone, Brazil and Australia.
Meanwhile, the genesis of Bar Works was under way, with 20 million shares registered in his name for $2,000 in July 2015, as the company began operating across three Manhattan venues.
Prosecutors said Haddow funnelled at least $18 million to accounts in 40 countries, including China, Cyprus, Mauritius and Morocco.
A pre-sentencing memo submitted to the court claimed Haddow had endured a harrowing time behind bars but had been rehabilitated. Documents claim he faced overcrowding, malnourishment, physical assault and inadequate medical attention following a knee injury.
The father of four was released under supervision in 2020, and during his probation he took on a job as a dishwasher at an Uzbek restaurant called Uma’s and later as an accountant for a food importer.
He now lives in Far Rockaway, New York, a beachside neighbourhood in Queens popular with surfers and joggers, where the average property sells for $700,000.
Since his arrest, Haddow has taken up martial arts and has regularly trained at the Tru Force Arts dojo in Rockaway Beach.
The gym is owned by retired New York City Police Department Detective Thomas Garcia, who befriended the conman and provided a character reference ahead of sentencing.
Detective Garcia described Haddow as a “dedicated student”.
“He is someone I regard with genuine respect,” Detective Garcia said. “His conduct has been marked by humility, responsibility, and a willingness to better himself and support those around him.”
Because of the time already served, the US Probation Office described Haddow as “low risk” and called for a non-custodial sentence.
Haddow has helped court officials to recover about $1.5 million in assets that could be redistributed to victims seeking compensation.
That figure could rise, with six properties in Morocco, Ecuador, Turkey and the UK, and other assets in the process of liquidation. These are believed to include expensive art, two boats and a sports car.
What the victims say
One of the victims, Jocelyn Houghton, worked in Dubai for Emirates airline as cabin crew and managed to save up $50,000 to put towards her first home. That was all lost when she was enticed to invest in Bar Works.
“I didn't just throw money at something recklessly,” she said. “I used an adviser, did my own research, contacted the officers, read the agreements and spoke to these guys on the phone. I genuinely believed it was all legit.
“Then the money disappeared. Life became before Bar Works and after Bar Works – a complete nightmare. As victims, we will never get back our savings, security, relationships, plans and the years of peace through blaming ourselves, as well as the hurt.
“I had a total loss of confidence, and felt a complete failure. I rebuilt my life because I had to. I had no choice. There's not a day that I don't think about Bar Works. We are still waiting. Maybe this time there'll be accountability or restitution but hope feels dangerous.
“Haddow’s lawyers are asking the court to see the man he is now. I just hope the court also sees the people still living with the consequences of what he did.”
