Success Stories

Confiscation success: £300k reduced to £30k

By David Bloom  |  11.11.2019

In 2016, Paul Moore was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court of fraud offences related to carbon credit trading. In 2017, he pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to playing a 'junior' role in fraud offences related to the mis-selling of shares to more than 300 investors who lost just over £1.4m.

Confiscation proceedings proved protracted due to the complexity of the underlying issues and involvement of multiple third parties. The FCA, for example, alleged our client had ‘available’ just under £300k insofar as he had made ‘tainted’ gifts to family members. We were able to demonstrate that most of these transfers were bona fide loans or else not ‘gifts’ at all.

The FCA agreed to an order of just under £30k and payable as compensation. The significance to our client was that he or his family members were not ordered to repay money they did not have; and significantly that the default prison sentence was reduced from up to 5 years to 12 months.

Importantly, the confiscation order itself makes clear that the benefit figure attributable to our client’s admitted mis-selling was just over £25k; whilst the benefit from the carbon trading was more than £5m, comprised mainly of a criminal lifestyle determination. Our client is seeking to appeal the carbon trading conviction as it was founded on the now discredited ‘expert’ Andrew Ager (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48444605). By delineating the confiscation order in this way, if our client is successful in his appeal, these confiscation proceedings will not need to be revisited.

David Bloom instructed Nathaniel Rudolf, leading Sonal Dashani, both of 25 Bedford Row

Read more here:

https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/fca-calls-on-defrauded-investors-to-claim-1m-in-recovered-funds/a1276265

https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2019/10/03/scammers-forced-to-compensate-victims-of-1-4m-scheme/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/10/03/boiler-room-scammers-ordered-repay-15m-conning-investors/

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