Scammers who conned investors out of £80 million in a boiler room share con spent the money on an extravagant luxury lifestyle.
A joint British and American task force was set up to track down the gang who were operating as fraudulent US companies selling unwary investors worthless shares.
Their trappings of wealth acquired from the stolen cash included a £350,000 private plane, 26 homes and commercial buildings and a fleet of upmarket cars and speedboats.
However, the authorities eventually traced the gang to Florida and arrested them after seven years on their trail.
Now, the three British ringleaders, Richard Pope, Simon Odoni and Paul Gunter are starting a sentence of a total of 43 years in an American jail.
Suicide over loss
Each was convicted of three charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and 19 money laundering offences.
Speaking after the trials, Detective Inspector Kerrie Gower, of City of London Police, who headed the inquiry, said: “These are the most arrogant, ruthless and destructive fraudsters we have investigated and they deserve every minute they spend behind bars.”
The gang employed teams of call centre operators in Spain who telephoned victims and tried to pressure them into buying the worthless shares by lying about their true value.
Some investors lost up to £1 million, while many lost life savings they could ill-afford.
Widow Andrea Goswami, from Yorkshire, lost £200,000 to the scammers – and her husband Mark committed suicide over the loss.
“They don’t care about what happened to us. They are greedy men who lied and cheated to get our money and destroyed our lives in the process,” she said.
2,300 victims
“I will never get my money, my husband or my life back. I have a daughter and was happily married until they came along and took it all away. We were financially comfortable, but now every day is a struggle because of these evil men.”
The gang started in 2004, when Pope, Gunter and Odoni hatched a plot to sell bogus shares.
The built elaborate web sites and printed brochures to add weight to their lies and false claims.
Two years later, police in London realised inquiries they were making about the scam matched a parallel inquiry running in Florida.
Police and government agencies then joined forces to bring the gang to justice.
Investigators estimate around 2,300 British victims handed money to the fraudsters.
