The Financial Conduct Authority is asking victims of an illegal investment scheme to get in touch as they may be eligible for redress.
The watchdog secured asset confiscation orders against six individuals, totalling over £1.8m ($2.5m, €2.1m).
The FCA said it managed to get in touch with all but 20 people, and is now making a “final call” for the remaining victims to come forward.
The six individuals were convicted and sentenced to a total of 28 years in prison, following the regulator’s largest fraud prosecution to date.
Judge Hehir of Southwark Crown Court made confiscation orders against:
- Michael Nascimento for £976,509;
- Charanjit Sandhu for £391,680;
- Ryan Parker for £345,775;
- Jeannine Lewis for £105,538;
- Stuart Rea for £46,184; and,
- Hugh Edwards for the nominal sum of £1, “given he has no available assets to meet the order”, the FCA said.
If investors have bought shares issued in one or more of Pearl Island International, Paragon Private Wealth, Berkeley Brookes, and Atlantic Equity; and have not been contacted by the regulator, they need to get in touch with the watchdog by 16 July 2021.
The case relates to a boiler room scam that took place between 2013 and 2014, where six individuals promoted investment schemes that offered interests in a purported commercial development in Madeira through the four companies above.
In 2016, the FCA said that around 175 investors had lost approximately £2.8m.
