FCA Returns £3.42 Million to Victims of Two Investment Schemes

The United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently announced that it has obtained High Court Approval to return £3.42 million to victims of unauthorised deposit taking and collective investment schemes.

The regulator detailed that the schemes were run by Samuel and Shantelle Golding and their companies Digital Wealth Limited (Digital Wealth Society or DWS) and Outsourcing Express Limited (OEL or Kerchiing).

Between 2015 and 2017, the schemes alleged to purchase cheap wholesale goods from China and sell them at a high price, promising unrealistically high returns, in some cases up to 100%.

However, the perpetrators didn't conduct any significant trading after raising over £15m from over 1,000 individual accounts. They just funded the existing investors' returns with funds coming from new investors, which is similar to a Ponzi scheme.

Though the FCA took immediate enforcement action and prevented the disposal of the remaining funds, there was already a shortfall of £3,285,413 in the DWS scheme and £834,402 in the OEL investment scheme.

The watchdog has recovered £3,428,612.42, from various bank accounts containing the proceeds of the schemes, which will now be returned to 356 qualifying investors in the DWS scheme and 250 qualifying investors in the OEL scheme.