Proceeds of crime news 16/10/2008 Money laundering tycoon linked with Wall Street scam

A business tycoon who made it on to the Sunday Times Rich List faces up to 14 years in jail after being convicted of involvement in a $175m (£111m) Wall Street share fraud, contravening the Money Laundering Regulations 2007.

Trevor Baines, 69, had denied charges of money laundering and false accounting at a trial in Douglas, Isle of Man, where he lives. His wife, Wendy, 50, was also accused of taking part in a money laundering scam, involving false accounting and artificially inflated share prices. Baines estimated £130m wealth was made mainly through his property empire but he is also understood to have been one of the early investors in the Miss World franchise.

He was convicted of transferring $175m from Switzerland to bank accounts in the Isle of Man, knowing or suspecting that the money was from the proceeds of crime.

The money had been amassed dishonestly by Roys Poyiadjis, a former senior executive at the American software firm AremisSoft, according to the prosecution. During the five-week trial, the jury heard how Poyiadjis, 44, amassed a fortune by falsely inflating his firms share prices from $5 to $55 before selling his holdings and stashing the cash away in Swiss banks. Baines transferred the funds to the Isle of Man on Poyiadjiss behalf in 2001, the court was told. He and his wife also created bogus invoices to help to cover up a scam that Poyiadjis carried out against the Bulgarian health service. Baines, who had denied charges of money laundering and false accounting, is due to be sentenced in November, with his wife. Poyiadjis is awaiting sentencing in the US after pleading guilty to securities fraud.

Head of the islands Financial Crime Unit Det Chief Insp John Mitchell said, This was a very lengthy and complex investigation involving multiple jurisdictions around the world. I am very proud and pleased that the Financial Crime Unit has been able to undertake and complete such an investigation in a successful manner.

Officials on the Isle of Man said that such serious money laundering offences affected the islands standing in the international financial community.

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