Thu, 20 Dec 2018
Philip was instructed on behalf of the defendant to proceedings before the Southwark Crown Court. The case was brought by the Financial Conduct Authority for fraud, and an offence under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (operating a collective investment scheme without authorisation).
Philip advised the defendant, and negotiated a plea-deal seeing the indictment counts reduced in number, and presented mitigation to successfully reduce the sentence from the starting-point applied by the guidelines.
The offending concerned false statements made concerning purported investment in the futures markets of European trading centres. The defendant had in fact found himself unable to execute the trades following some earlier losses, and in the end investors who were repaid were funded by other investments, and many investors lost out when the offences were brought to light. He had never claimed to be regulated by the FCA, but legally this was a requirement in fact for any such scheme.
The defendant pleaded guilty and was remorseful, but unable to repay his investors the sums owing.
Read more on the case:
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/mark-starling-sentenced-5-years-imprisonment-fca-prosecution-3-million-investment-fraud
https://www.ftadviser.com/regulation/2018/11/29/investment-fund-fraudster-jailed-for-five-years/
