In a statement on its website, the watchdog said Peter Francis Johnson had failed to act with integrity and “deliberately mislead” the FCA on “a number of occasions”, adding that it would have fined him £200,000 had he not been in serious financial hardship.
Keydata Investment Services (Keydata), which sold investment products backed by life settlement bonds, went into administration in July 2014 after failing to keep up income payments to investors.
According to the British regulator, between 26 July 2005 and 8 June 2009, 37,000 investors purchased the firm’s products, investing over £475m ($689m, €611m).
Despite previously having £2.8bn of asset under administration, the FSCS was forced to pay out £330m in compensation to investors when the Keydata went bust.
Ongoing investigations
Johnson had lodged an appeal against the regulatory action, but has since withdrawn. Upper Tribunal cases will still be held in relation to former Keydata chief executive Stewart Ford and former sales director Mark Owen.
Last year, Ford was fined £75m by the FCA for misleading the regulator and for failing to act with integrity in his role at the firm.
In September 2015, Keydata former finance director Craig McNeil was fined £350,000 and banned from performing any role of “significant influence”.
At the time, McNeil described the ruling as “ill informed, inaccurate and self-preserving”, adding that he was “stitched up” by the watchdog, which “misled” him into settling in 2011.
“Keydata covered payments to investors and advisers from its own resources during the period of the alleged SOP 4 breach. I reported this exposure on our FCA financial return in March 2009.
“The FCA ignored this disclosure because no one at the FCA looked at this financial return. The FCA’s claim that I should have rang them up and explained what was happening in words of one syllable is nonsense. If they cannot read financial figures, they should not be regulating financial firms,” he said.
