We’re all too familiar with the scam email request from Nigerian oilfields or stressed Royal who can’t get their money out of the country. But with fraud in the UK estimated to be in excess of £190 Billion per annum and with only £1.9 Billion being detected there is obviously a need to ensure any investment you consider is checked very carefully indeed.
Another day and yet another high profile footballer is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. This time it is Wayne Rooney who is staring down the barrel of an additional £6 million tax bill after a film tax scheme he invested in went bust.
Southwark Crown Court has jailed four men over their part in a £2.4 million conspiracy to miss-sell carbon credits to 130 investors.
Company director Sandeep Dosanjh and senior brokers James Lanston and Charanjit Sandhu had earlier admitted their involvement in fraudulent sales made between January 2012 and August 2013 through, Harman Royce Ltd and Kendrick Zale Ltd, in the then-fledgeling carbon market.
Lee Denton founded TB Options Limited in 2015. The company was a phoney binary options trading business and Lee Denton defrauded 42 victims out of almost £500,000. Lee has now been jailed for four and a half years by Southwark Crown Court.
Operation Tidworth was the FCA’s second largest ever criminal prosecution.
The instigator and main beneficiary of the fraud, Michael Nascimento, will be sentenced separately on 14 September 2018.
In a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 5 individuals have been sentenced to a total of 17.5 years’ imprisonment for their roles in a share fraud carried out through a series of boiler room companies which led to the loss of more than £2.8m of investors’ money.
Another month goes by and the Spanish authorities hand out another criminal conviction to someone involved in top-level football. This time it is Jose Mourinho that has been handed a one-year suspended jail sentence for tax fraud along with an additional fine of £1.8 million by the Spanish authorities for tax evasion.
The fine equates to 60% of the €3.3 million (£2.9 million) of tax he is found to have avoided paying in 2011 and 2012. This related to image rights held in an offshore company while he was managing Real Madrid, according to reports.
…. another £6 million lost by investors
This is money today reported that a British businessman dubbed the ‘bling king’ is being investigated for money laundering and fraud after expats lost up to £6 million by investing in his companies.
Money Mail has spoken to a number of residents on the Costa del Sol who say Rhys Williams persuaded them to plough money into Dubai-based companies by offering fixed returns of 2% per month on their investments.
The UK’s Action Fraud revealed that it received 203 reports of cryptocurrency scams in the first two months of the summer.
Between June and July 2018, victims collectively lost just over £2 million, an average of £10,096 per person.
Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, warned that the surge in popularity of cryptocurrencies has given rise to more fraud in this area.
A man from Glasgow placed on FBI’s ‘most wanted’ list
James Alexander Ward, 65 has been on the run for six years after being accused of ripping off victims in a precious metals fraud scheme in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Ward, also uses the name Jamie, regularly dyes his red hair and uses aliases. He is known to travel to Mexico, Canada, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The FBI alleges that Ward earned $400,000 via bogus deals involving gold, silver and platinum from at least 12 investors. Ward is accused of violating strict US commodities, law, along with his business partner Nathanial Walker, in 2011.
All major retail banks are aware of the payment redirection scam and you should be too.
Payment redirection is a scam where you’re typically sent an email asking you to set up a payment to a new account or to amend existing account details. The successful ones almost always come from a supplier or contractor you’re already working with.
