The FCA has secured a confiscation order at Southwark Crown Court for £171,913 against Manraj Singh Virdee who was given a two year suspended prison sentence for cheating investors with a unauthorised investment scheme.

Mr Virdee defrauded investors, many of whom he knew well, of over £600,000 by illegally operating an unauthorised investment scheme. 

The monies will be used to compensate the 24 victims of his crimes who lost in the region of £650,000 in total. If Mr Virdee does not pay the confiscation order on time, he is liable to be sentenced to a further 2 years in prison, the FCA said.

Mr Virdee was the sole director of Dynamic UK Trades Ltd. Between October 2015 and November 2017 he promoted a deposit taking scheme without authorisation from the FCA, mainly targeting wider family and associates. He also entered into an agreement with one investor to manage £192,500 in spread betting trading in which only £10,000 was used as promised. 

The effect of the confiscation order is to confiscate all of Mr Virdee’s criminal proceeds, says the FCA.

The court heard that Mr Virdee had derived a benefit of £666,730.58 from his criminal conduct but that the total realisable assets for confiscation were only £171.913.60.

Mr Virdee lost the rest of the victims’ monies through unsuccessful FX trading and maintaining his lifestyle.

Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “This confiscation will go some way to compensating Mr Virdee’s victims whom he misled and defrauded. The FCA reminds investors to beware of anyone who is not authorised to carry out the activities they are offering.”