By John Mulligan

Copyright independent

The Irish Independent reported earlier this year that the two companies – Fresh Made Homes and Whitestone Investment Capital – had been established at a virtual address in Co Longford.

The directors included US citizen Crystal Ding, Italian citizen Diego -Martin Marguello, and UK-based Estonian citizen Kristjan Soot.

Ms Ding has been contacted for comment.

Mr Soot, who has had a sideline selling puppies in Coventry, set up a UK company in 2022 called Canine Cargo. It was, its business code noted, involved in cargo handling for air transport activities. It was compulsorily dissolved in 2024.

Mr Marguello and Ms Ding were also directors of a UK firm that was compulsorily dissolved.

They were directors of a firm called Legacy Realty Group, which was established in 2023. In September the following year, it was struck off.

A Texas company that Mr Marguello and Ms Ding set up in 2022, Brand Express Group, has lost its corporate privileges – a situation that arises where a business has failed to file annual reports or pay required business taxes.

Ms Ding insisted the article should not have been printed

Before the Irish Independent reported earlier this year on Fresh Made Homes, Ms Ding declined to comment. However, following publication of an article about the business, she insisted that Fresh Made Homes had representation agreements from suppliers in China.

She insisted the article should not have been printed in order to protect the privacy of her and her fellow directors.

Now the Companies Registration Office (CRO) has warned the two companies that they face being involuntarily struck off the company register.

That is probably because the firms no longer have any directors.

Mr Marguello and Mr Soot both resigned from their roles at both companies on the same day in August this year. Ms Ding remains on the register as the secretary of both Fresh Made Homes and Whitestone Investment Capital.

Today’s News in 90 Seconds – October 6th

The CRO has had significant problems with its IT system that have prevented the automated involuntary strike-off of companies breaking the law. It has been manually targeting companies without directors.

However, the number of companies being struck off is just a tiny fraction of the number of companies that either have no directors or have failed to file annual returns, for example.

Mr Marguello’s LinkedIn profile still lists him as the CEO of a company called Shoclef.

In 2018, Shoclef launched its mobile app. It promised to “redefine the status quo approach to consumerism”.

“Shoclef users are given access to more than 150,000 cities worldwide to sell or buy products and services, showcase their talents live, and earn money, all in real-time through live stream,” it noted.

Ms Ding was also involved in the business.

In 2019, Shoclef filed a more than $10m (€8.5m) lawsuit against a man in Pakistan, and his company there, alleging that Shoclef had entered discussions with them in 2016 “to develop the plaintiff’s e-commerce platform and to create related software and mobile applications”.

The case was dismissed by a judge in 2021 for a failure to prosecute.