The High Court yesterday made orders against a number of persons involved in carrying out an unauthorised foreign exchange investment scheme. 

The scheme took at least £1.2 million from 65 investors but none of the money was used in foreign exchange trading or for any other type of investment.

Noerus Investments Limited was declared by Christopher Pymont QC (Deputy Judge of the High Court) to be an unauthorised company based in Cyprus. He said that other persons carrying on business under the name Noerus Capital were unlawfully promoting, and purporting to operate, a managed foreign exchange trading facility between December 2014 and November 2015, in contravention of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

The court also issued restraints against further contraventions and ordered the Noerus Defendants to pay £1.23m to cover the losses incurred by the investors, the FCA said.  

Given that the financial watchdog has not yet identified enough assets to cover the full amount of losses to investors, there will likely be a shortfall in the amount that can be recovered. To assist in the distribution of funds, the Court approved a scheme that allows the FCA to return all the sums recovered.  

The court also continued a freezing injunction against Noerus Investments Limited to assist in the recovery of any further funds. 

The FCA also applied civil proceedings against other unauthorised parties whose actions facilitated it. The FCA previously reached a settlement with some of these defendants. 

Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA said: “The FCA will continue to use its powers to strike down firms carrying on unauthorised regulated activities without FCA approval, to recover losses caused by misconduct and to hold accountable all those involved, including facilitators.”

The FCA recently launched a campaign to urge the public to stop remaining silent when financial scams occur. It also urged the public to seek impartial advice before investing.

The watchdog urged the public to get in touch if they have been contacted by a company offering what they think could be a fraudulent investment as new research shows more than a fifth (22%) of over 55s surveyed who suspect they have been contacted about a fraudulent investment in the last three years, did not tell anyone about it. The most common reason given for not reporting was not knowing who to report to (49%).

Last year the FCA received over 8,000 reports of potential scams, with Londoners reporting the highest number of complaints, followed by those from Birmingham, Belfast and Guildford.

The regulator publishes warnings about potentially fraudulent firms which are added to the FCA Warning List, an online tool that helps investors check a list of firms operating without authorisation and find out more about the risks associated with an investment. This list contains details of nearly 4,000 firms to avoid.