The FCA has banned the former CEO of Dolfin Financial from working in financial services along with the firm’s co-founder and former finance director for running a scheme that helped clients bypass UK visa rules.
Former CEO Denisz Nagy has been fined £324,800 and former finance director Sanjay Maraj £122,000 for their roles in the scheme.
The FCA found a scheme run between 2016 and 2019 was deliberately designed to create the false impression that the Home Office investor visa rules were abided by.
The scheme enabled at least 99 individuals to obtain investor visas by paying a fee of £400,000 instead of investing £2m of their own money in UK companies and generated at least £35.5m in fees for Dolfin-connected businesses and the immigration agents that introduced clients.
Nagy and co-founder Joukovski were determined to have played leading roles in creating and operating the scheme, while Maraj was responsible for the financial side of running it.
The FCA found Joukovski deliberately concealed both his involvement with Dolfin and his role in the scheme from the regulator. Joukovski has referred his Decision Notice to the Upper Tribunal.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Integrity is not optional in financial services. These individuals ran a scheme designed to get around the UK’s investor visa rules, undermining their purpose of attracting genuine investment into the UK.
“They then sought to hide how it operated. We will continue to act against those who lack integrity and undermine trust in UK financial services.”
