Atlas Biomed

[Phoenix]

I had never heard of this company before today.

Out of curiosity, I looked it up on the Companies House website. I do this if paying money to companies I have never heard of.

Red flags might be:

• First set of accounts yet to be submitted. (Well, that's okay, it was incorporated in 2016)
• Private limited company, so owned and controlled by a small number of people
• Small company submitting unaudited, abridged accounts. There are thousands of perfectly respectable small companies, but the only clue to its profitability is the sum of its historic profits or losses. Company law defines a small company as: · a turnover of £10.2 million or less · £5.1 million or less on its balance sheet · 50 employees or less. It has to meet two of the three requirements. Atlas's turnover could have been £20m or £5k. No way of knowing.
• Continuing losses. Atlas figures look propped up by unexplained debtors (unpaid share premiums?) and intangible assets, which probably represented the money they thought they could get from selling DNA details. Even so, they kept on making losses.
• Changes in registered office. If this happens several times, it suggests that either the board are poor at choosing accountants, or the acountants aren't happy with the board.
• Changes in the style of the accounts. Again a clue to undisclosed disagreements. The three sets of acounts I have looked at so far have all come from different stables. They each shine a slightly different light on things. None of it rosy.
• Late filing of accounts. There are always slip ups, but persistent late filing suggests either a reluctance to present the true picture, or an inability to pay.
• Lots of changes in directors. This may indicate (if those involved are of working age) a change of direction for the company, a bloodbath in the board room or (as two directors resigned shortly after the 2022 accounts were published) a recognition of impending doom.

Conclusion?
Well, I wouldn't have touched this company with a bargepole, particularly since several directors were not merely Russian nationals, but living in Russia. But then we don't all go to the Companies House website when doing a saliva test!

[kiterunner]

I assume this is why you mention them? I'd never heard of them until I saw your post.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7wl7rpndjo

[kiterunner]

But I wonder whether they ever actually tested any DNA, or did they just destroy the samples and send fake reports?

[Phoenix]

I'd never heard of them either. It sounds more like a poor business model. You would have thought that if the results sounded obviously wrong someone would have complained. But it's a bit like fortune telling. I imagine many of the customers heard what they wanted to hear.