Mata ATLÂNTICA em ITEREI photo Léa Corrêa Pinto
City of London Police secure first carbon credit fraud prison sentences
fonte: City of London Police
City of London Police this week secured its first criminal convictions and prison sentences for a carbon credit fraud following a three-year trans-Atlantic investigation
Ian Macdonald and David Downes were jailed at Kingston Crown Court yesterday for being the masterminds of an international boiler room fraud that funneled $9 million from UK investors into Canadian and US bank accounts.
The pair’s criminal operation targeted thousands of people, many of them elderly and vulnerable, with offers of carbon credits and shares that were marketed as highly profitable investments but in reality they were almost or completely worthless.
Some of the money was lost to fund lavish lifestyles in Marbella, but much of it has since been recovered from frozen bank accounts and will be returned to victims by the City of London Police.
Macdonald, 50, was sentenced to eight years after being found guilty to money laundering while Downes, 46, received a four and a half year jail term having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud.
Personal details had been obtained through the share list of legitimate companies and used by recruits of Macdonald, 50, and Downes, 46, to systematically cold call and pressurise people, many of whom were elderly, into buying carbon credits and shares.
Some victims were contacted again months later and told companies they had invested in were the subjects of hostile takeovers and that they needed to buy more shares to protect their original investment. Individual losses ran as high as $600,000.
Between January 2007 and December 2010 hundreds of victims paid millions of dollars into accounts held by Macdonald, most notably under the names of Hampton Capital Management Incorporated and North Pacific Escrow.
However, these financial transactions had not gone unnoticed, with City of London Police having been alerted to them by Essex Police and its own National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.
In November 2010 Macdonald and Downes requested their bank wire a million dollars to a Swiss company, but the British Columbia Securities Commission blocked the transaction and froze the account due to suspicions over the origins of the funds.
A month later City of London Police received information that MacDonald and Downes were flying into Heathrow from Vancouver en route to Spain. The pair were met at the airport and arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation and money laundering.
As the investigation continued detectives uncovered lists of people that appeared to have been targeted by the Macdonald and Downes’ fraud. By the time the case came to trial more than 1,800 potential victims had been contacted by the investigation team.
Detective Constable Claire Armson-Smith, from the City of London Police, said:
“Securing the first convictions and jail sentences for a carbon credit fraud is a landmark moment for the City of London Police, with two men who ruthlessly targeting the vulnerable being brought to justice and their criminal operation dismantled.
“Much of the money they stole and moved across the Atlantic has been recovered and will be returned to victims, helping them to move on from a very bad experience and sending a message to other fraudsters that they when we come for them we will come for their money as well. “
City of London Police has been investigating a growing number of suspected carbon credit frauds, where environment investments are being marketed as a safe way to make easy money.
People believe they are buying products that can be traded to companies in a legitimate market when the reality is these credits either do not exist or can only be bought and sold on a voluntary market at a fraction of their supposed value.
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