Boiler room scam three sentenced to jail in US 23 July 2013

Boiler room scam three sentenced to jail in US   23 July 2013

By Emma Simpson Business correspondent, BBC News

 

Richard Pope, Paul Gunter and Simon Odoni were found guilty of one of the UK’s biggest scams.  Three British men have been sentenced to a total of 43 years in prison in the United States for their part in one of the UK’s biggest investment frauds.

Richard Pope, Simon Odoni and Paul Gunter conned British investors out of £80m.  This was then funnelled off into US bank accounts for them to enjoy a lavish lifestyle. The men were the backbone of an international crime gang that swindled at least 2,300 UK citizens.  The City of London police believe it’s the UK’s biggest boiler room scam.

I’m never going to get my life back – the life I had with my husband, my chances of a happy married life with my daughter – we were trying for another child at the time, those hopes have been destroyed”  Andrea Goswami

“These men are amongst the most arrogant, ruthless and destructive criminals the City of London police have ever dealt with and deserve every day they will spend behind bars,” said Det Insp Kerrie Gower, who led the investigation.  ‘Sheer greed’

The men co-ordinated what police described as a network of Spanish boiler rooms, employing hundreds of people to cold call investors, using high-pressure and misleading sales tactics to con them into buying worthless shares.  Most of the victims were retired professionals whose losses ranged from a few hundred pounds to £1m.

Andrea Goswami, from Yorkshire, still can’t find the words to describe her loss. Her husband Mark killed himself after losing around £200,000.  “How could they be so arrogant to think they could get away with it, and have no conscience about it, and just to destroy people’s lives in this way, just for money and just for sheer greed, and is it greed that’s all that it’s about – they say money’s the root of all evil and they are evil for what they’ve done,” she said.

“I’m never going to get my life back – the life I had with my husband, my chances of a happy married life with my daughter – we were trying for another child at the time, those hopes have been destroyed. Financially it’s been devastating and it’s a struggle, it will continue to be a struggle because of what they did.”

Mark Goswami’s money, and all the other stolen savings, were used to expand the criminal network and pay for the gang’s extravagant purchases.

Fake stock   They included a £350,000 private plane, 26 properties and a number of luxury cars and speedboats.

The sentencing marks a major milestone in a seven-year transatlantic investigation involving an array of law enforcement agencies, from Spain to Florida.  John Joyce, special agent in charge in Tampa, Florida, said the case was a great example of how law enforcement partnerships worked on an international scale.

“The United States Attorney’s Office, HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and the US Secret Service worked this case with their law enforcement partners from London to investigate, prosecute and convict Mr Gunter, Mr Odoni and Mr Pope.   “Their sentences should send a clear message to other fraudsters.”

 

The fraud began in 2004 when Pope, 55, Gunter, 64 and Odoni, 56 acquired the identity of several fraudulent US-based companies. Call centres based in Spain were then used to try to sell fake stock to unsuspecting investors.

Websites and glossy brochures were used to give credibility to the gang’s bogus investment opportunities.  The enormity of the case first came to light in 2006 when the City of London police linked a number of inquiries in the UK to activities under investigation by federal agencies in the US.

‘Utterly destroyed’  Widow Andrea Goswami: “To destroy people’s lives in this way, just for money – it’s just sheer greed.”

“The devastation and the impact that victims have suffered has been huge and it’s had drastic consequences to individuals lives – marriages breaking down, selling of properties, individuals losing their businesses, having to work again when they were about to go in to retirement,” said Det Insp Gower.

“The enormity and scale of the devastation, I can’t even say in words what has happened in relation to this case.” Andrea Goswami travelled halfway round the world to tell her story in a Tampa courtroom.  “Going into the courtroom was the hardest thing I have ever had to do,” she said.  But she was determined to get justice for her husband.

She said he was utterly destroyed by the realisation he’d been conned and the shame of losing everything he had invested in. Andrea only discovered the true scale of the losses after he died.  “He didn’t want me to worry about it. My husband’s a very proud man and he would never have told me the truth, he would have soldiered on. If he hadn’t been so desperate at that time, if he’d only been able to talk to me about it – we could’ve got through it.

“He must have been so desperate about the situation and obviously didn’t know what to do for the best – he’d feel like he failed us. It wasn’t his fault but he wouldn’t have seen it that way because that’s the sort of person he was – very loving, kind and caring and very intelligent and wanted to do the best.”

Richard Pope, originally from St Albans in Hertfordshire, was arrested in Spain and extradited to the US. He pleaded guilty in March 2011 of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud between 2004 and 2008.

UK background   In March 2013, the trials of Paul Gunter and Simon Odoni took place with Pope testifying against them. Both men were found guilty of three counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, as well as 19 counts of mail and wire fraud and 19 counts of money laundering.

Pope and Gunter had originally worked together in insurance in the UK.  Gunter had lived in London but later emigrated to the US.  Odoni, also originally from St Albans, tried to avoid his bail in the UK by relocating to the Dominican Republic, living in one of the beachside properties purchased through the scam.  He was later arrested in Florida while travelling through Miami Airport.

Paul Gunter was sentenced to 25 years, Simon Odoni got 13 years and 4 months while Richard Pope received a far shorter sentence in return for his co-operation of 4 years and 9 months.  All three men are spending years behind bars. But no sentence will be long enough for Andrea Goswami and her family.

“They’ve got families of their own. Would they do that to their own families? It doesn’t even bear thinking about what sort of a mind they must have. To me it’s incomprehensible and it makes me so, so angry that when I see what they bought with all the victims’ money – they bought houses and boats and cars and property and left us with nothing. No amount of money can ever ever replace my husband.”

British trio jailed over £85m fraud

British trio jailed over £85m fraud

Florida court hands down sentences of up to 25 years against men who peddled worthless shares in ‘boiler-room’ scheme – Press Association

Wednesday 24 July 2013

 

Three British conmen who left thousands of victims penniless as they frittered £85m in stolen money on a private jet, yachts and holiday homes in the Caribbean have been jailed by a Florida court.

Richard Pope, Paul Gunter and Simon Odoni lived a luxurious life while defrauding at least 2,300 Britons, many of whom lost their entire life savings and one of whom was driven to suicide.

They were jailed at a court in Florida, where Gunter, 64, was sentenced to 25 years. Odoni, 56, was given 13 years and four months and Pope, 55, was sentenced to four years and nine months.

Detective Inspector Kerrie Gower said: “Pope, Gunter and Odoni are amongst the most ruthless and destructive criminals the City of London police have ever dealt with and deserve every day they will spend behind bars in America.

“Unfortunately this sentencing will not repair the huge damage they caused to the lives of thousands of people who were simply looking for a safe place to invest their money, but hopefully it will bring a measure of comfort and a sense of closure to those caught up in what was fraud committed on a truly massive scale.”

The £85m scheme – a so-called boiler room fraud where unsuspecting investors hand over cash for worthless shares – is one of the biggest of its kind ever uncovered in the UK. A total of seven defendants were charged in March 2009 and two years later Pope, originally from St Albans, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Gunter, from London, and Odoni, also from St Albans, stood trial in March this year. Three British victims flew from the UK to Florida to give evidence.

Another three were too ill to travel but gave evidence in the UK and the video footage was played as part of the trial. Gunter and Odoni were found guilty in May.

Gower said the trio milked as much money as they could to fund their lifestyle partying on yachts, driving sports cars including a Ferrari and travelling in a private jet.

“These were arrogant criminals who were just ripping off UK investors,” she said. “Taking as much as they could from them and having criminal lifestyles, lavish lifestyles, whereby they were purchasing boats, a plane and high value vehicles. We have 26 properties down in relation to Paul Gunter alone.”

Police said he and Odoni, who was hiding in the Dominican Republic to avoid extradition for his crimes, had so far shown no remorse.

Odoni was caught when a flight he was on suffered engine trouble and had to unexpectedly divert to Miami. He therefore had to land on US soil and was arrested.

Their thousands of victims included Mark Goswami, who killed himself after he was defrauded of more than £70,000. His widow Andrea, 48, from Yorkshire, said: “I’m very, very angry and no sentence in my eyes will be long enough for what they’ve done the damage that they’ve done.

“They’ve defrauded whole families, just destroyed their dreams for their families’ futures.”

The scam began in 2004 when the trio stole details of dormant publicly traded companies. They employed hundreds of staff in call centres in Spain who would phone potential victims and lure them into buying the shares.

The gang used a website to trick their targets into thinking their investments were moving up or down to persuade them to pump in more cash, or as an excuse for why they were losing money.

Staff, who made around 50 cold calls each per day, would use high-pressure sales techniques and lied that members of their own families had invested money.

Pope, Gunter and Odoni’s jail terms come at the end of a seven-year investigation involving City of London police, US authorities, the Serious Fraud Office and Norfolk police.

 

CAR BUG SHARES

Hendon and Finchey Times  7.48 pm Wednesday 15th November 2006

COUPLE ADMIT £1m Scam

A couple from Friern Barnet conned people into investing more than £1 million into their dying business in order to fund a lavish lifestyle, which included renting a luxury mansion in Hadley Wood, a fraud trial heard this week.  Tony and Danielle Rose convinced more than 100 people, including pensioners and widowers, to buy shares in a business which claimed to prevent crime and track cars.  But the pair, from Hatley Close, used the money to buy a £24,000 holiday in St. Lucia, a stretch limousine, Jaguar and Toyota cars and a £2.5m property in the borough.  Tony Rose, 57, faces jail after he admitted charges of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.  His wife, aged 50, was told she would be spared a custodial sentence after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of inducing an investor contrary to the Financial Services and Marketing Act.

Southwark Crown Court heard how Car Bug Trader Plc began carrying out what is known as a ´boiler room´ fraud, where worthless shares are sold, after forging links with a Spanish crime syndicate.  Judge Christopher Hardy said:  ¨They were working extremely hard to give the impression that they were people to be trusted.  ¨This type of offence is extremely serious and undermines confidence in the business community.  ¨The couple began cold-calling potential victims with fake business qualifications and CV´s.  Danielle claimed to have been a director with Disney.  They persuaded dozens of people to invest, including a farmer from Orkney in Scotland, who was left with nothing after buying £70,000 in shares.  He was told the company would be ´the new Microsoft´ and his shares would increase in value from £3.50 to £12.  The pair will be sentenced on December 7.

 

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