The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it has obtained High Court Approval to return £3.42 million to victims of an unauthorized deposit-taking and collective investment schemes.
The FCA states that Digital Wealth Limited, aka Digital Wealth Society (DWS), and Outsourcing Express Limited (OEL) also known as Kerchiing were illegal schemes operated by Samuel and Shantelle Golding.
According to the FCA, between 2015 and 2017, the firms purportedly involved the online purchase of wholesale goods from China for onward sale and promised: “unrealistically high returns, in some cases up to 100% of the amount invested.” The FCA said that new investors funded existing investor returns and the Goldings have admitted to the Court they were personally involved in these contraventions.
The schemes raised just over £15m from over 1,000 individual accounts. Upon becoming aware of the schemes, the FCA prevented the removal of funds but over £4 million was missing.
The FCA 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.
Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, commented:
‘The FCA took action as soon as it became aware of these illegal schemes, preventing further losses to future investors who would be unable to exit the scheme before it inevitably collapsed. In this case, we managed to save some money for investors: too often it is too late. These firms were not authorised by the FCA and as we always say to consumers, if a scheme looks too good to be true, do not invest. We have worked very hard to identify people eligible to receive compensation from these schemes and are pleased to have been able to recover and return some of their money.’
