The Guardian reports that a financial trader has been sentenced to seven years in priso for swindling his friends and employees £22 million in an elaborate scheme to fund his opulent lifestyle.
Poole , Dorset native Benjamin Wilson has been charged on four counts, which include fraud and forgery, for creating a a futures trading fund that operates like an elaborate Ponzi scheme. The UK newspaper said the SureInvestment fund had drawn in over 300 victims, some of whom invested their life savings to Wilson. Wilson, said the report, spent the money on fast cars, race horses and casinos in Las Vegas.
Judge Michael Grieve of the Southwark crown court said Wilson committed a shameless fraud that had caused incalculable devastation on his victim investors, many of whom were vulnerable or elderly.
Financial Conduct Authority director of enforcement and financial crime Tracey McDermott said about her agency's latest achievement, "The FCA has objectives to protect consumers and enhance the integrity of the financial system. Wilson being put behind bars contributes to us achieving both."
The Guardian said Wilson came into the regulators' radar in 2004 when he ran an unauthorized fund, which promised unlucky investors 60% in average annuall returns via brochures filled with diamonds, mansions and speedboats. The FCA also said that Wilson's skill as a trader was not worthy to be invested in, as he himself lost around half of his investment money.
Investigators of the FCA said Wilson made sure that to keep current and potential investors' belief of the futures fund by having lavish offices in Poole, which comes in a champagne-stocked fridge, massage room and expensive bull and boar sculptures. Aside from the offices, Wilson made sure that donations to local sports clubs of £50,000 were made, the Guardian said. Wilson also had fooled his own employees, with several putting in money to the fraud trader's fantasy fund.
McDermott said it was not unusual for people to trust such a charismatic figure like Wilson. McDermott also said that the regulator has measures already in place to warn people of fraudulent people and businesses like Wilson's.
