Wealthy Celebs, Sport Pros And Businessmen Duped In £80m Con

Wealthy sports stars, high-profile businessmen and celebrities are among 600 victims of a £80million Ponzi scheme uncovered by City of London Police.

Detectives launched an unprecedented offensive to break the spell of a gang of financiers suspected of masterminding the massive swindle.

Investigators suspect at least 600 people around the world have lost huge sums to the gang of fraudsters behind the bogus high-yield fund.

But investigators have been struggling to win the support of victims who refuse to believe their life savings are gone.

Two men from Virginia Water, Surrey, John Anderson,43 and Kenneth Peacock,40 and Kautilya Nandan Pruthi,38 from Knightsbridge, central London, have been arrested and remain on bail.

They have been questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and fraud by misrepresentation.

Officers remain in a desperate race to track down the missing money, some of which may be held in accounts in Dubai, the Cayman Islands and Thailand.

They have seized assets worth about £1million, including jewellery and watches, as well as £250,000 cash. 

But the finds are just a small portion of the missing cash and earlier this week police seized an £800,000 stable of eight prestige cars including a Lamborghini, two Ferraris - a 612 Scaglietti and F430 Spider - a Rolls Royce, Maserati and two Bentley's from a West Sussex dealership.

Senior officers took the unusual step of holding a series of meetings at the City force's headquarters for hundreds of people embroiled in the fraud.

During a series of highly-charged presentations they faced down angry claims that their inquiry is responsible for the collapse of the fund.

Officers outlined some of the evidence against the gang and asked victims to fill in statements and compensation claims.

Det Supt Bob Wishart, of City of London Police's fraud squad, said many victims cannot accept people they trust have cheated them.

"These victims have been totally hoodwinked. They have been befriended and groomed by the bad guys," explained the officer. "They think these people are friends and they have placed complete trust and have given over a lot of personal information and it is very difficult to break that link of trust.

"Consequently we get this situation where we find they do not believe us. That is the power of the fraudster. Even though they have been arrested and we have searched their homes and offices and closed them down, the victims still do not believe anything is wrong.

"It is only by taking this robust stance and seizing everything we can that you start to make inroads. It is a house of cards once you get a bit of momentum."

Many of the victims were introduced by family members, friends and business associates they met at wealthy sports clubs and upmarket West End bars.

Police said several victims have already lost their homes, others have been declared bankrupt and some have attempted suicide.

Two families lost huge sums of money they had saved from years of benefits to help pay for the long-term care of their disabled children.

The criminal investigation focuses on Knightsbridge-based finance firm Business Consulting International (BCI) of Relton Mews and several companies linked to it.

Police believe a gang of men ran a fraudulent and unregulated investment scheme offering returns of between 6 per cent and 13 per cent a month for up to four years.

Clients were told the money was loaned to 'distressed' companies who needed short term cash and were willing to pay for it.

But it began to unravel when some payments were missed and people alerted the financial authorities to their suspicions and officials at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) began examining regulatory breaches before referring the case to police.

Detectives found the fraud was similar to many Ponzi schemes where a small amount of investor money is used to pay returns This leads clients to believe their money is safely invested encouraging them to put more money in and encouraging others to follow them.

However, the vast bulk of the money disappeared overseas or is used to fund the lavish lifestyles of a small number of people behind the conspiracy.