Convicted fraudsters Jeffrey Revell-Reade and Anthony May were ordered to pay £11m in compensation, at Southwark Crown Court yesterday (19 April).
At a hearing overseen by Judge Gledhill QC, Jeffrey Revell-Reade, 51, was ordered to pay a £10.75m confiscation order and Anthony May, 60, was ordered to pay a £250,000.
Both men are serving sentences for what is believed to be one of the largest boiler room fraud schemes ever pursued by a UK authority.
The pair sold shares in US-listed companies from Madrid, but when investors came to sell the shares after the expiry period, many found they were unable to as they were worthless; either placed in shell companies or companies not operating at all.
Their convictions were linked to seven other individuals, also convicted and sentenced following a seven year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.
Mark Thompson, head of the SFO’s proceeds of crime division, explained that these individuals benefited substantially from their crimes.
“Their lavish lifestyles featured numerous overseas properties, wine collections and a luxury yacht. We welcome these orders which the pair now need to pay or face a further period of imprisonment.”
Both men were given three months each to pay the orders, or face an additional prison sentence in default of payment – 10 years’ imprisonment for Revell-Reade and three years’ for May.
It was ordered that the sums paid towards the confiscation orders are to be returned to the victims in the case.
In June 2014, the mastermind of the fraud Revell-Reade was sentenced to a further eight years and six months in prison (having already served the equivalent of a year in prison overseas whilst contesting extradition) while May was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison.
The SFO had been seeking to recover £43m from Revell-Reade, which would have been the biggest order it had ever obtained in such a case. After extensive negotiations with his legal team, the SFO accepted there were no hidden assets.
Revell-Reade’s solicitor Ben Holden called it “an extraordinarily complex case” and pointed out that the burden of proof is on the defendant to satisfy the prosecution he does not have the hidden assets they claim he owns.
“A team of five has worked on the case for 19 months and, thanks to their hard work, we were able to satisfy the SFO that our client’s assets were worth a lot less than they first thought”
peter.walker@ft.com
