Five people have been sentenced to a total of 17.5 years in prison in the second biggest FCA prosecution for their involvement in share fraud.
The five were sentenced last month in Southwark Crown Court. The group were found guilty of fraud in relation to their involvement with a series of boiler room companies, which lost its investors £2.8 million.
Boiler room companies use outbound call centres to sell questionable investment by telephone. They use salesmen who employ dishonest sales tactics and, in this case, commit fraud.
In between July 2010 and April 2014, members of the public were bombarded with cold-calls, with malicious salesmen employing “high-pressure sales tactics” to try and get vulnerable investors to purchase shares in a company that owned land on the island of Madeira. Investors were promised a guaranteed return of between 125% – 228%. No money was ever returned to investors.
The FCA commented that its probe was one of the largest and most complex they had seen, and included four different search operations, 4 million documents and 142 witnesses.
Mark Steward, FCA Executive Director, stated that the fraudsters had “targeted investors who were often elderly and vulnerable”.
The money that was received by the fraudsters was used to maintain the fraud and fund a lavish lifestyle.
How can Smooth Law Commercial help if you have been affected by mis-selling?
At Smooth Commercial Law, our team of experts have extensive experience in dealing with a whole manner of claims that arise from negligent and/or unsuitable financial advice, including fraud. We are seeing more and more mis-sold financial claims.
Should you have a claim we can deal with your case and look to recover compensation for not just your loss of investment but also any adverse tax liabilities that you may now be facing as well.
You can contact our experienced team by calling 0800 051 2578 or by emailing info@smooth-commercial-law.co.uk