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The Severe Fraud Workplace is to return over £1m to greater than 200 victims of one of many UK’s greatest ever boiler room frauds.
The SFO carried out a seven 12 months investigation – codenamed Operation Steamroller – into the fraud.
The probe led to the profitable prosecution of Australian nationwide and fraud mastermind Jeffrey Revell-Reade in 2014. He was sentenced to 9 years and 6 months in jail and given a complete confiscation order of roughly £7.5m.
Since 2016, the SFO has been pursuing the enforcement of Mr Revell-Reade’s confiscation order. Over £3m has been returned to the 200 victims thus far.
Operation Steamroller was carried out with the help of the Metropolis of London Police and spanned a number of worldwide jurisdictions.
For the newest restoration, the SFO has now additionally teamed up with Spanish authorities to safe new compensation funds by way of the sale of a luxurious penthouse condo within the Costa del Sol.
Between 2003 and 2007 UK buyers have been conned out of round £70m below a boiler room scheme masterminded by Mr Revell-Reade. Bogus gross sales groups working from Madrid used excessive strain gross sales strategies to promote nugatory shares in US-listed corporations.
Traders purchased the shares, the sale of which was restricted for 12 months, and once they got here to promote they discovered their shares to be value nothing. Most have been shell corporations or corporations not working in any respect.
After being knowledgeable of the newest compensation cost the SFO mentioned one sufferer wrote to the SFO to say: “I dropped a tear. Being caught up in that boiler room rip-off has had, and continues to have, an influence on my life. I don’t assume anybody may even start to think about the general influence on the person that these frauds trigger.
“I’m so grateful to the SFO for pursuing and persevering with to pursue these criminals throughout the totally different international locations.”
Emma Luxton, head of proceeds of crime and worldwide help on the Severe Fraud Workplace, mentioned: “This consequence demonstrates our tenacity and dedication to making sure victims obtain the justice and compensation they deserve, regardless of the complexity of the investigation or what number of years have handed because the crime was dedicated.”
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