British man admits inventing fake takeover bid for Canadian oil explorer
Christopher Woolcott used false identities and forged documents in hope of benefiting from rise in Touchstone Exploration shares, says regulator
The British creator of a fake takeover bid for a Canadian oil exploration company listed in London and Toronto pleaded guilty on Thursday to four counts of fraud and forgery.
Christopher Woolcott has admitted inventing a takeover bid for Touchstone Exploration, using multiple false identities and forged documents, the Financial Conduct Authority said.
The UK financial regulator, which has been investigating Woolcott since 2025, said he stood to benefit financially from any upward move in Touchstone’s share price if the sham bid had been announced to the market.
Woolcott, 44, from Greenwich in London, pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to one count of fraud by false representation and three counts of making a false instrument. He is due to be sentenced at a later date.
Isaac Mirza, a lawyer representing Woolcott, did not respond to a request for comment.
Touchstone, which discovered the bid was a fake and informed the FCA, is a Calgary-based oil and gas exploration and production company with most of its operations in Trinidad and Tobago.
The FCA said it was not investigating Touchstone, which is listed on London’s Aim market and on the Toronto Stock Exchange, in connection with the case. Touchstone did not respond to a request for comment.
“Fake bids, forged documents and false identities have no place in our markets,” said Steve Smart, the authority’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight. “Investors must be able to trust information that affects share prices. The FCA will take action against those who use deception and threaten that trust.”
The UK regulator warned in a newsletter in April that it was concerned about an increase in small listed companies “being targeted directly as part of potentially manipulative schemes to affect those issuers’ share prices”.
There is a long history of fake takeover bids for companies.
One of the best-known examples was an $8.2bn tender offer for Avon by a company called PTG Capital Partners that sent shares in the US cosmetics seller sharply higher after it was filed via the SEC website.
US prosecutors later charged Nedko Nedev, a Bulgarian citizen, with market manipulation over the Avon bid, alleging he filed a “sham tender offer” to “enrich himself and mitigate trading losses”. US authorities found PTG Capital had been a fictitious UK entity.
False bids have also surfaced in recent years for other well-known companies, such as Twitter and Fitbit, seemingly part of attempts by traders looking to profit from moves in their share prices.