Benedict Moruthoane has been disqualified as a director by the high court for 14 years after helping to defraud investors of £360,000 ($437,337, €424,764) as part of an African gold trading scheme.
The Insolvency Service said that Sutter Capital was incorporated in June 2018 and promised investors returns of between 15% and 22% per annum on bonds based on arbitrage trades within the artisanal & small-scale gold mining market throughout Africa.
Between September and December 2018, the company secured £360,000 from investors, according to the service. However, Sutter’s promotional material “had not received the required approval” under Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, and much of the material “contained inaccuracies”, it added.
Although Sutter Capital did receive approval for three bonds in October 2018, these could only be marketed to certain categories of investors – but the Insolvency Service said that the company “did not adhere to these restrictions”.
Investigation
Sutter Capital ceased trading in December 2018 and the administrators raised concerns regarding the directors’ conduct to the Insolvency Service.
The subsequent investigation by the service found that as well as “misleading potential investors with information in the promotional material, the company had failed to maintain or keep adequate records”.
All that was provided to investigators was a “single spreadsheet, which showed payments for salaries, commission and expenses, but no investment activity”.
The sole director of the company, Eugeniu Sculea, accepted a disqualification undertaking last year for a period of 11 years.
But the high court determined that Benedict Moruthoane had acted as a “de facto” director of Sutter Capital and ordered that he be disqualified for a period of 14 years, commencing 16 August 2022
His disqualification order prevents him from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.
Ian Wilson, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service said: “Sutter Capital only traded for three months, supposedly raising investment for gold arbitrage trading. But in that short time, it took hundreds of thousands of pounds from would-be investors, to whom it promised outrageously high returns.
“This case should serve as a warning that any investment scheme that sounds too good to be true is almost certainly is.”
