Jurisdictions involved
UK, the British Virgin Islands and Luxembourg.
The business and background
This matter involved a property investment scam, where the Clients had invested around £2.5m in a project to redevelop a London property, operated by the Subject.
The Subject had made false claims, supported by falsified documents, about the progress of the redevelopment. In actuality, the redevelopment had stalled, and the Subject had used the funds invested by the Clients to support his opulent lifestyle.
We were approached after the Subject had already been convicted, to assist in bringing a Private Prosecution against the Subject in order to recoup their losses.
What we did
Working in a team of one managing director and two associates, we undertook a full analysis of the Subject’s 26 bank accounts, creating a detailed summary of the Subject’s income and expenditure. The legal side of the private prosecution was handled by specialist lawyers.
A complicating factor in the case was that the Subject argued that he had no realizable funds of his own and that any funds at his disposal were at the discretion of his father, a wealthy Lebanese businessman with offshore wealth and significant business interests in Nigeria.
The outcome
The case is still ongoing, pending the Subject’s response.
