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| Lord Martin (left), Roland (right) |
In order to create the illusion of sophistication and to dupe naive potential clients, Martin Tilman at various times assumed the titles "Rt. Honourable", "Sir", and "Lord" - these titles can be seen on various documents relating to CAW Galleries.
http://www.cdrex.com/the-rt-hon-sir-martin-tilman/664868.html
According to Tre McKenzie - an accomplice of Roland Tilman in a later scam (see here) - Martin Tilman "bought" the right to call himself Lord for a couple of hundred quid from an agency such as Elite Titles.
Nevertheless, such titles are not authorised to be used on legal documents and it is obvious that Martin Tilman used his "title" with intent to deceive.
What's more, under no circumstances did Martin Tilman have the right to label himself "the Right Honourable" which is an honorific reserved for members of parliament. Such use on an official document is patently fraudulent, and again designed to deceive.
CAW Gallery seems to have made its money through selling artwork at vastly inflated prices based upon false promises of investment returns and access to other benefits.
Here is an email I received from a Hungarian-based victim of CAW Gallery which explains in detail how the company tricked customers out of their cash:
Hi,
Sorry I could not be around on Sunday. We may talk tonight after working hours if it is convenient for you.
Yes, I am a victim of Tilman's Hungarian activity but I also "worked" for CAW and do know a lot of other people who are victims and ex-coworkers. We all had to purchase a painting to become eligible to become agents of the Gallery so all of us are also involved in financial loss. I personally lost 10K Euros and have 3 paintings that are worth max. 1K Euros. The reason why it looked to be a great investment was the additional so called MATRIX system of the Gallery. According to their"Bonus program" and related contract, with your purchase you got a position in their system and within a time frame you should be receiving investment returns. Needless to say that this matrix system has never existed and the website that was shown to us had no proven background and as soon as they moved out of the country the website stopped working. Overall what they ( Roland Tilman, wife Zsofia and brother Martin Tilman) did was the following:
1) person decided to buy the painting
2) received an email from CAW email address, on where to send the money. It was always a UK bank account.
3) received a very basic contract about the purchase of the painting plus another contract about their Matrix system
4) after a while the painting was deliver to the customer, additional shipping fee had to be paid
They sold the painting on incredible high margins, painting were only paid to the painters once they were sold.
I was lucky enough that I could not sell any of the paintings, so at least I do not have to apologize in front of any of my friends or family members. So others were not that lucky- they did brought into this fraud many of their friends and family members, some lost incredible amount of money, some were even crazy enough to take loan for this investment. Its is true that investors "stupidity " is their own fault, however from the very beginning Tilmans knew that this will never pay out what they promised, so the intention from the very beginning was for them to collect money. Look at this way: They only paid the painters once they received the money , agents were only paid on MLM system, meaning their had to finance their own phones, cars, business cards etc. They always referred to a greater CAW headquarter in UK which we found out has never existed. CAW has been an offshore compnay in UK and this is where all of our money went. In Hungary they had no company, issued no invoices, paid no taxes. If exhibitions were organized , this was paid by the poor agent who collected the money from entrance fees, that other agents paid based on their invited people.
And once things got a little awkward ( people started to ask questions and raised concerns) they started to move out the country. My ex co-workers met them at a Police station where they arrived with their lawyer and they promised to buy back the paintings. But this was just to draw away attention. They kept promising and prolonged deadlines all the time but in the meantime they sold all their premises in Hungary and left the country. I know this beacuse I hired a private investigator and they tried to talk to them but it was too late, we should have caught them earlier. By the way- in Hungary Roland was using the title "Lord" which was also bizarre- both are originally Hungarians- their mother went to England and took the boys with her. Not sure how this title is given in Britain but for sure not for what he said. He told us that he got it for "FAIR TRADE attitude"- what a bullshit in all ways!!!
Currently police investigation is going on. I can present you documents, emails to prove the above and also can talk to the other victims to have them joined to our conversation/discussion.
We may never get our money back from them but I hope that sooner or later they will be stopped and put into jail and no more people would be cheated like we were. I've been surfing the net for years to find anything about them as I was sure that what they did in this country was not the end, so finding your blog was just another prove that my assumption was correct.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Kind regards,
V*******
==========END OF EMAIL==========
You can see how CAW Gallery sold their "bonus matrix" by following this link: http://cawrewardsprogram.blogspot.com/
You can see how CAW Gallery sold their "bonus matrix" by following this link: http://cawrewardsprogram.blogspot.com/
Roland and Martin Tilman: Serial Scammers?
Roland Tilman and Martin Tilman seem to have been well known in their local community for small time scams, as this email from a Croydon resident confirms:
Hi,
I personaly knew both of these men back in 2000-2002 when I was 15. Martin was born in 1985 as he was only a year older than me - and Roland I believe was about 20-23 (I asked my friend who also knew them quite well).
They orginally moved from Hungary when the boys were quite young, I think Roland was about 5?
They grew up in Thornton Heath/Croydon which is where their mother still lives today. Her name is Otilia Tilman.
They were in on scams at that age. They sold/signed up people for computer training door to door and got paid cash in hand by a bloke from South Norwood every week on a commission basis for each sign up. Looking back at it now, it was quite horrific, people didn't know what they were giving their details up for or to whom.
However old the picture is of Martin, he hasn't changed that much at all. Roland has put on a lot of weight, he used to be a gym buff. They were both very dodgy characters then. They were both very arrogant and cocky then, seems like they haven't changed.
I did try and add this to your blog but it appears not to have worked.
I personaly knew both of these men back in 2000-2002 when I was 15. Martin was born in 1985 as he was only a year older than me - and Roland I believe was about 20-23 (I asked my friend who also knew them quite well).
They orginally moved from Hungary when the boys were quite young, I think Roland was about 5?
They grew up in Thornton Heath/Croydon which is where their mother still lives today. Her name is Otilia Tilman.
They were in on scams at that age. They sold/signed up people for computer training door to door and got paid cash in hand by a bloke from South Norwood every week on a commission basis for each sign up. Looking back at it now, it was quite horrific, people didn't know what they were giving their details up for or to whom.
However old the picture is of Martin, he hasn't changed that much at all. Roland has put on a lot of weight, he used to be a gym buff. They were both very dodgy characters then. They were both very arrogant and cocky then, seems like they haven't changed.
I did try and add this to your blog but it appears not to have worked.
==========END OF EMAIL==========
Roland Tilman was also the ringleader in the London Fashion Exchange scam, a quasi-pyramid scam that targeted young adults - see this link for full details:
Beyond the Tilmans
Other people had significant involvement in the CAW Gallery company besides the Tilman Brothers, as the screengrab below illustrates:
The photo below is available on the following CAW blog page that is still online. It is captioned: l to r: Lady Sandra Bates, CAW's Mr. P and Kevin Gregory.
The man in the centre is Paul Tran. The man on the right is a former Tory councillor who at various times has been in the papers for allegedly assaulting his secretary (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246891/The-femme-fatale-Tory-lovers-claims-violent-bust-home.html) as well as more recently for being a trustee of a charity currently under financial investigation http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance/news/content/18273/charity_commission_opens_investigation_into_legal_advice_charity. There is no suggestion Gregory had any knowledge of the reality of CAW Gallery, but it is intriguing to see a figure who has been suffering allegations of financial irregularity in the company of the Tilmans.
The woman on the left is Lady Sandra Bates, a flamboyant patron of the arts and former playboy bunny http://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/lust-is-all-the-better-if-the-host-lies-down-8794622.html. Again there is no suggestion she was anything but oblivious to the reality of CAW Gallery.
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| Paul Tran |
Paul Tran was "commercial director" of CAW Gallery and was therefore surely fully aware of the fraudulent practices employed by the company. He now owns a Vietnamese restaurant in London called Chao!Now http://www.chaonow.co.uk/
You can see from the following screengrab how Paul Tran was listed as the key contact for potential customers to join the CAW rewards program/"bonus matrix" described earlier in this post:
The following is a recent conversation RE CAW Gallery with an artist who was briefly courted by CAW.
Action
This blog has been published mainly with a veiw to raising awareness about the actions of the Tilman brothers so that anybody who intends to do business with them in the future is given fair warning of potential risks. However, a police file is open on CAW Gallery in Hungary, and there is still hope that if more evidence can be discovered, the Hungarian police could be persuaded to put more effort into the investigation. Therefore if you were a victim of CAW Gallery or wish to find out more information you can get in touch at veniamin.tal@gmail.com. I would also be glad to hear from you if you have been a victim of any other scam run by the Tilman brothers, or if you have any information regarding their current activities.
