Trio forced to pay £115m for biggest UK Ponzi fraud
Britain’s High Court has ordered a trio of illegal deposit takers to pay about £115m to the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the financial market regulator said yesterday.
The three – John Anderson, Kenneth Peacock and Kautilya Nandan Pruthi – were found by the High Court in March to have accepted deposits without FSA authorisation, the watchdog said. City of London police are still investigating the UK’s largest so-called “Ponzi” scheme.
The FSA said it planned to return the money to its original owners but it may not be possible to retrieve the full amount.
“Investors should be aware that previous experience in cases of this type suggests that it is unlikely that money owned to investors by Pruthi, Anderson and Peacock will be repaid in part or at all,” the watchdog said.