A London-based scammer who was part of a scheme that conned £80m ($111m, €94m) out of investors has been handed a nine-year prison sentence for not paying a £5.3m Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confiscation order.
Jolan Saunders was one of three conspirators who convinced victims to invest in Saunders Electrical Wholesale Ltd by lying about supply contracts.
They “overstated minor contracts with the Hilton, Marriott, Plaza and Holiday Inn hotel chains” and “lied about a non-existent contract to supply the Olympic village for the London 2012 Olympics”, the SFO said.
Saunders, along with Michael Strubel and Spencer Steinberg, took almost £80m from investors and spent it on yachts, expensive property and luxury cars. In 2015, Saunders and Strubel were each jailed for seven years, while Steinberg was jailed for six years and nine months.
Failure to pay
But on 2 August 2021, at a confiscation enforcement hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Saunders was handed a second jail term for failing to pay a £5.3m order after an investigation by the SFO’s proceeds of crime team uncovered that he held millions of pounds in criminal assets.
Following his failure to take steps to pay his confiscation order, the court activated Saunders’ default prison sentence and he has been imprisoned for a further 3,236 days, or just under nine years.
The SFO confirmed to International Adviser that Saunders had already served seven years in prison and the latest sentence will be in addition to original one.
“Despite the SFO showing clear evidence of Saunders’ £4.5m in hidden assets from his fraud, Saunders has made no attempt to use this money to pay his confiscation order,” the SFO said.
“Instead, he has stalled and asserted, without evidence, that he hopes to pay the confiscation order through ‘major project works at blue chip hotels’ – echoing the false claims he made to those whom he defrauded.”
‘Callous distain’
John Carroll, chief operating officer of the SFO, said: “With callous disdain for those he has harmed, Jolan Saunders has resorted to falsehoods and obfuscation to avoid paying compensation to the victims of his pernicious fraud.
“We will not allow him to do so. He has rightly been jailed and we will continue to fight to deliver justice and return compensation to his victims.”
With accrued interest and the small sums paid by Saunders, the figure he owes, as of 27 July 2021, is just around £5.7m.
The SFO “will continue to take steps to recover his illicit gains”, it said.
