British man admits inventing fake takeover bid for Canadian oil explorer

Touchstone Exploration is a Calgary-based oil and gas exploration and production company with most of its operations in Trinidad and Tobago. Photo by PATRICK FORT/AFP via Getty Images

Article content

Article content

Christopher Woolcott has admitted inventing a takeover bid for Touchstone Exploration, using multiple false identities and forged documents, the Financial Conduct Authority said.

Article content

Article content

Article content

The United Kingdom 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.

Article content

Article content

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.

Article content

Isaac Mirza, a lawyer representing Woolcott, did not respond to a request for comment.

Article content

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.

Article content

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.

Article content

“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.”

Article content

Article content

The U.K. 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”.

Article content

Article content

There is a long history of fake takeover bids for companies.

Article content

One of the best-known examples was an US$8.2 billion tender offer for Avon by a company called PTG Capital Partners that sent shares in the United States cosmetics seller sharply higher after it was filed via the SEC website.

Article content

U.S. 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”. U.S. authorities found PTG Capital had been a fictitious UK entity.

Article content

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.

Article content

© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd

Article content

Article content