UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has secured a confiscation order of £171,913 ($223,381, €201,515) against Manraj Singh Virdee.
This follows an FCA prosecution in which Virdee was given a two-year suspended prison sentence for “misleading consumers, fraud and the illegal operation of an unauthorised investment scheme” worth around £600,000.
Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “This confiscation will go some way to compensating Virdee’s victims whom he misled and defrauded.
The FCA reminds investors to beware of anyone who is not authorised to carry out the activities they are offering.”
Payment
Southwark Crown Court found that Virdee had “derived a benefit” of £666,730 from his criminal conduct, but that the total realisable assets for confiscation were £171,913.
Virdee lost the rest of the victims’ monies “through unsuccessful FX trading and maintaining his lifestyle”.
The money will be used to compensate the 24 victims of the scheme.
If Virdee doesn’t pay the confiscation order on time, he is liable to be sentenced to a further two years in prison.
Case
Virdee was the sole director of Dynamic UK Trades and, between October 2015 and November 2017, he promoted an unregulated deposit taking scheme, mainly targeting his wider family and associates.
He also entered into an agreement with one investor to manage £192,500 in spread betting trading, but only used £10,000 for this purpose.
In addition, Virdee received around £600,000 from investors, some of whom were “guaranteed” returns of up to 100% based on his claimed success as a currency trader.
In reality, however, only £457,119 of those deposits were actually traded and almost all were lost or used to fund his lifestyle.
As well as his two-year suspended prison term, Virdee was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community.
