A troubled fund manager now in liquidation had links to the Panama Papers, it has emerged.

Premier Group Isle of Man went into voluntary liquidation earlier this year.

One of the funds it managed and promoted, Eco-Resources Fund, was wound up by the high court this month, having built up debts of more than £2.3m.

The 189 investors who invested money the Eco Resources Fund, a diversified sustainable assets fund which included bamboo fibre plantations, investments in publicly traded stocks as well as financial hedging instruments, have been told they are unlikely to get any of their money back.

In its claim for the winding up of Eco-Resources, the Financial Services Authority noted that the fund had 100 management shares of $1 each, of which 99 were held by Premier Group Distribution Inc, of 24 De Castro Street, Wickhams Cay 1, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

This is the address of the BVI office of Mossack Fonseca, the offshore law firm which found itself at the centre of the Panama Papers revelations last year when millions of files from its database were leaked.

The unprecedented leak shone a new light on the hidden world of international offshore finance.

Premier Group IoM appears in the Panama Papers as does its four BVI entities including Premier Group Distribution Inc.

Some 29 shareholders and beneficiaries are listed for Premier Group Distribution Inc.

These include Jamie Sutton and Michael Richardson, both directors of Premier Group prior to its demise, and Antony Parry who along with Mr Sutton resigned as a director of Eco-Resources Fund in December last year.

Eco-Resources’s provisional liquidator Gordon Wilson has told shareholders that in light of the fund’s financial difficulties dating back almost two years, he didn’t expect news that they were unlikely to see any return on their investment would come as surprise.

He said he hoped the liquidation would lead to a fuller explanation of what has happened and that ’any necessary action against those involved in the affairs of the fund might be taken’.

* It has been suggested to us that the manner of our reporting in the above article may have given the false and incorrect impression that EcoPlanet Bamboo Group LLC (a Chicago based entity, trading as EcoPlanet Bamboo) is related to EcoPlanet Bamboo IOM Limited. For the avoidance of doubt, EcoPlanet Bamboo IOM Limited (the Isle of Man based entity) is not associated with EcoPlanet Bamboo Group LLC (the Chicago based entity), nor its subsidiaries. Further, neither Eco Resources Fund nor EcoPlanet Bamboo IOM Limited have any interest in EcoPlanet Bamboo Group LLC nor in any of its plantations. We apologise for any misunderstanding caused by the manner of our reporting.