FCA begins legal proceedings towards Daniel Pugh for unauthorised funding scheme

The UK Monetary Conduct Authority (FCA) has began legal proceedings towards Daniel Pugh, who’s charged with one rely of fraud and three offences of breaching the Monetary Providers and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).

The FCA alleges that between 1 March 2019 and 31 August 2020, Mr Pugh defrauded buyers out of roughly £1.3 million by means of an unauthorised funding scheme, often known as ‘Imperial Investments Fund’.

Particularly, the FCA alleges that Mr Pugh:

• conspired to defraud by making numerous misrepresentations relating to the rates of interest supplied, buying and selling exercise and income from the scheme to these keen to put money into the scheme;
• carried out regulated exercise in the UK, specifically accepting deposits, working a collective funding scheme and inducing individuals to speculate, when he was not authorised by the FCA or an exempt individual.

Mr Pugh was charged at Westminster Magistrates Court docket yesterday. The case was despatched to Southwark Crown Court docket, the place the defendant will seem on 15 August 2023 for a plea and trial preparation listening to.

Conspiracy to defraud is an offence beneath widespread regulation with a most sentence on conviction of 10 years’ imprisonment.