Money laundering news 15/04/09 17 years imprisonment for boiler room gang

A money laundering gang of four men has been jailed for a total of seventeen and a half years last week, after defrauding hundreds of investors out of a total of £4 million over a 12-month period. The gang was running a boiler room scheme, employing hard-sell tactics to persuade victims, many of whom were elderly people, to invest in shares that proved to be of little or no value, while the gang profited from the proceeds of crime.

Niven Gunratnam, who owned the Watford house where the fraudulent scheme was based, received a sentence of five and a half years imprisonment; his accomplices in the money laundering offences, Nicholas Ailey and Frazer Bettie, received a four-year and a four-and-a-half year sentence respectively. Inaam Ul Haq, who pleaded guilty in a previous hearing, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

The sentences conclude a three-year operation, known as Operation Wizard, by the fraud squad of Hertfordshire Police. The force will now begin recovering assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and reports predict reclamation of £1 million worth of criminal property, a quarter of what was invested.

Detective Constable Jim Frost, who had worked on the money laundering investigation, told the BBC that These deplorable actions were committed by selfish and unscrupulous people, who were determined to live a lavish lifestyle funded by deceit and dishonesty. They have caused misery for hundreds of people across the country and have taken away money that these people will never see again.

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