The Financial Conduct Authority has secured an order against money laundering fugitive Richard Baldwin that would force him to either pay £1.6m or face another eight years in prison.
Luxury watchmaker Baldwin was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison in 2017 as a result of the insider trading investigation Operation Tabernula, instigated by the FCA.
During the investigation, the City watchdog unearthed a “highly sophisticated” scam that took place between October 2007 and November 2008. It also involved co-defendants Martyn Dodgson and Andrew Hind.
Baldwin used off-shore companies, bank accounts and false invoices and during the earlier sentencing hearing the judge had remarked that Baldwin had been convicted on “compelling evidence” of “extremely sophisticated” money laundering, according to the FCA.
However, Baldwin ran away during his 2017 trial and has remained at large ever since.
Now, the Southwark Crown Court has ordered him to pay a total of £1,633,766 within the next three months or face a further eight years in prison.
That would add to the previous sentence that also included separate contempts of court which he admitted in 2015.
“Money-launderers compound the harm caused by crime by helping to cover up the offence and the proceeds from it,” said Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight. “Mr Baldwin remains a fugitive. However, this will not prevent us from pursuing a confiscation order to recover the benefit a person has obtained from their criminality.”
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