Two brothers were convicted at Southwark Crown Court yesterday (May 23) for removing £750,000 from a failed investment firm.
Peter Currie, 59, was convicted by unanimous verdicts of two counts of fraud and one of money laundering while his brother Andrew Currie, 57, was convicted of one count of fraud and one of money laundering. Andrew Currie was acquitted of one count of fraud.
The verdicts were delivered following a five-week trial and sentencing will take place on July 7.
What happened
Peter Currie was a director of peer-to-peer style investments firm Collateral which, before collapsing into administration in February 2018, fraudulently claimed on a website to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
According to the FCA in December 2015 Peter Currie swapped the details of a separate company he had agreed to sell, named Regal Pawnbrokers Ltd, for the details of Collateral on the FCA register.
Over the following 18 months, Collateral was advertised as authorised to persuade people to invest in loans on its platform.
In January 2018 the FCA notified Peter Currie that it had uncovered the register change and ordered that Collateral cease unauthorised business.
But the firm continued to receive investments and the brothers removed some £750,000 from the Collateral client accounts.
At around the same time they appointed an administrator and transferred a further £88,000 from Collateral funds without informing the FCA as is required.
Commenting on the case, the FCA said the integrity of the FCA register was “vital to consumer protection”.
It said in a statement: “The Curries masqueraded as an authorised firm to defraud consumers by falsifying the official record and the jury has quite rightly concluded their conduct was criminal.
“The FCA has invested heavily in the register to strengthen controls and make it easier for people to use, with more information available to consumers.”
jane.matthews@ft.com
