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Thousands of cash-strapped, vulnerable people entrusted £20million to this man who said he could write off their debts.

Cartel Client Review took up to £495 in upfront fees from people desperate to reclaim bank and mortgage charges and dump credit card debts.

It promised the fee would be refunded that if there was no valid claim - but yesterday boss Carl Wright (pictured left) admitted to us there's no money for refunds.

Some customers could face legal bills running to £30,000 after Cartel's solicitors failed to insure themselves against losing claims, and were shut down last week on suspicion of dishonesty.

Now the Ministry of Justice is investigating Cartel.

Carl Wright styles himself as the man who saw the credit crunch coming. He also saw how to make a huge pile of money out of it.

As his firm gloated last year, the recession "continues to assist the spectacular growth of the financial irregularity market".

But we've been investigating complaints from customers who say they've been kept in the dark by Cartel for months.

Rosemary Duffin, from Dolgellau, North Wales, paid £495 to see if her mortgage was mis-sold.

She was told to expect a result in a year but after hearing nothing, she needed her money back. So she asked us to help.

We clinched her refund and Rosemary said: "I don't know when I would have seen my money if you hadn't intervened."

But others were told they'd have to wait to hear from Cartel's legal team at Consumer Credit Litigation Solicitors - the firm shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority last week.

CCLS ran out of money and staff were unpaid for months.

Cartel, meanwhile, should be swimming in cash. Wright paid himself £790,000 in 2008, shortly before spending £735,000 cash on a huge gaff in Warrington. Yet accounts for 2008 show it was more than £560,000 in the red. So is clients' money safe?

"It depends which way you want to say safe," squirmed Wright. "The money is not available to be refunded back."

He insisted the initial legal work had been done as promised and clients now needed to find a no-win, no-fee solicitor to take the case to court.

That could be tricky, he admitted, especially as recent judgments have made many of Cartel's claims "questionable". Wright said he was "gobsmacked" to find CCLS - which shared his office building - was uninsured.

He doesn't know how many of his 35,000 clients are due a refund but, after investing £1m himself, has made sure he's first in line for payouts if Cartel goes bust.

Shamelessly, he said customers should be able to reclaim their fees from their credit card company.

Read Carl Wright's interview and more on Cartel here.

UPDATE March 18, 2010 3:44 PM

The Ministry has today announced it has suspended their authorisation for Cartel Client Review to trade in the claims management industry.

There's a notice on the MoJ's Claims Management Regulation department's website.

It means Cartel won't be able to take on any new business without breaching the Compensation Act 2006.