Following the recent convictions of Jeffrey Revell-Read and Anthony May the details of the prosecution of the UK’s biggest ever boiler room fraud can now be reported:
Stuart Trimmer QC was instructed by the Serious Fraud Office to prosecute a series of trials in August 2012.
In early 2013 the trial of six defendants, senior sales men and administrators in the fraud took place. After a three month trial at Southwark Crown Court all were convicted. In June 2013 a further defendant was to be tried for money laundering related to the fraud. She pleaded guilty at the outset of the trial.
In February 2014 the trial of two senior figures in the fraud commenced. They were convicted in June 2014 . One Jeffrey Revelle-Reade, regarded as the most senior fraudsman was sentenced to 9.5 years. More information is to be found in the official SFO press release (below) and the BBC report on the case.
Two fraudsters, who ran what is believed to be the largest boiler room fraud scheme ever pursued by a UK authority, were today sentenced to prison.
Jeffrey Revell-Reade, 49, an Australian national, who masterminded the scheme, was sentenced to a further 9 years and 6 months in prison He had been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud in relation to an investigation that was launched by the Serious Fraud Office in 2007.
Anthony May, 58, who lived in Switzerland and then moved to Spain and was also found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison. Revell-Reade was also disqualified from being a director of a company for 12 years and May for 10 years.
Commenting on the sentences handed down, HHJ Gledhill said:
“Many investors lost every penny they had… the consequences of those losses have been dreadful and in some consequences catastrophic.
“Even in the process of one firm dying and another being born, deceit and fraud were employed.
“Some believe fraud is a victimless crime; this case proves the fallacy of that.”
A confiscation investigation is being conducted and any orders for compensation and / or costs will be dealt with in due course
The court heard that Mr Revell-Reade set up the scheme, under which sales entities operating from Madrid sold shares in US-listed companies on a fraudulent basis.
Investors in the companies bought shares that had restrictions on their resale for a 12 month period.
When the investors came to sell the shares after the expiry of this period, they often found that they were unable to do so as they were worthless, and that the shares were in shell companies or companies that were not operating at all.