Five defendants facing accusations of unauthorised deposit takings have been ordered by a judge to pay back £675,000 to members of the public, but the case is not over yet.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has welcomed the judge’s interim restitution order, claiming that the five defendants had accepted money for projects including forex-trading and crypto-assets without regulator’s authorisation.
The court also made declarations that the fundraising involved unauthorised deposit-taking and ordered permanent injunctions against the five defendants.
Two more defendants have opposed the order and are awaiting a trial date for when the proceedings will continue.
“This restitution order means we can take steps to repay some of the money to investors before the full case is heard by the court,” said Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA.
“The FCA will continue to pursue the case against the two remaining defendants and will seek to recover as much of the balance as possible. There is no doubt investors losses would have been worse if we had not intervened with these proceedings when we did.
“Before beginning to invest people should always check our register to ensure that they are dealing with a legitimate firm and check out our ScamSmart pages.”
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