The Financial Conduct Authority has warned against investing in opportunities that “sound too good to be true”, after two men were convicted of fraud for their part in a £1.5mn crypto scam.
Between February 2017 and June 2019, Raymondip Bedi and Patrick Mavanga cold-called consumers and directed them to a professional-looking website where they were offered high returns for fake investments in crypto.
The two men were convicted following a prosecution brought by the FCA.
Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Bedi and Mavanga lured investors with promises of high returns on crypto investments, but their schemes were nothing but a callous scam.
“If you’re contacted out of the blue about an investment opportunity that sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. If you’re in any doubt – don’t invest.”
Bedi pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to breach the general prohibition under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and money laundering offences at an earlier hearing.
Mavanga pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to breach the general prohibition under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and possession of false identification documents with an improper intention at an earlier hearing.
Mavanga was convicted of perverting the course of justice for the deletion of phone call recordings following the arrest of Bedi in March 2019.
The jury were unable to reach a verdict on a third defendant, who faces a retrial in September 2025. While a fourth, Rowena Bedi, was acquitted of money laundering.
Bedi and Mavanga are due to be sentenced at a later date and a further individual, Minas Filippidis is wanted in relation to the same offences.
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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