Fraudster jailed for four and a half years

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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.

An all too familiar pattern of cold-called victims offering clients a return of up to 20% a month. In this case, Lee claimed to be a City of London derivatives trader, where in reality, after taking a minimum deposit of £5,000 which he said would be invested on their behalf, the court heard that Denton was banking client money in his personal current and PayPal accounts and using the proceeds to fund a high-rolling lifestyle of nights out, hotels and designer clothing.

Detective constable Rob Leete of the City of London Police fraud squad said: ‘Denton had no qualms in lying to these people to steal thousands of pounds from them, which for some may have been their life savings, and now they’ve been left with nothing.

‘The investigation revealed Denton’s deceitful nature and he is now deservedly paying the price for his fraudulent activity.’

To support his claims and encourage further investment, Denton operated fake online trading accounts and supplied documentation purporting to show that clients were making good returns on their money.

This is a pattern we see regularly at IYE, fraudsters are highly convincing and prepared to produce fake websites and documentation to enable their crimes.

Despite clients being assured that they could withdraw their funds at any time, once clients asked to cash out, Denton would simply cut off all contact with them.

Once again, this is common practice. As soon as clients realise there may be a problem, all communication is withdrawn.

The court was told that in this case, around £192,000 of the £475,000 identified by police as being fraudulently obtained was squandered on lifestyle goods.

IYE has a range of investigative services to suit clients both large and small. Our aim at IYE is to ensure our clients do not fall victim to fraudulent investments in the first instance. We are happy to discuss and fully investigate any potential investment and provide clear, simple to follow advice on the legitimacy of a proposed investment along with the people associated with it. If you’d like to undertake full due diligence to ensure the investment you’re considering is genuine, please call us on: +44 (0)20 8914 7923 or use our contact form on the IYE Global website.