A self-styled property expert who was well known on the property investment seminar market has been jailed for two years for lying to potential customers.
Raj Von Badlo, who had earlier pleaded guilty, was sentenced to a total of two years’ imprisonment for recklessly making false representations to investors and promoting a collective investment scheme without authorisation.
Von Badlo, also known as Raj Shastri, was sentenced alongside Alex Hope at Southwark Crown Court on Friday. The pair’s scam centred on Forex trading.
Hope was sentenced to a total of seven years’ imprisonment for defrauding investors of significant sums and operating a collective investment scheme without authorisation.
In total, over 100 investors entrusted Hope with over £5.5 million. The scheme was closed down by the FCA in April 2012. As a result of the work of the FCA, approximately half of the amount taken from investors was identified and frozen. Consideration of confiscation and other financial orders will take place at a later date.
Despite telling his investors that he would trade their money successfully on the foreign exchange markets, only 12% of the total money that investors gave Hope was ever traded and when he did trade, he lost almost all of the money in his trading accounts.
Hope used the money from the scheme to fund a lavish lifestyle of foreign travel, nightclubs and casinos. He shot to fame for running up a £200,000 bar tab in one night.
Hope exaggerated his trading abilities and the returns he was making. He used doctored copies of statements from his trading account to mislead investors. As a result of this deception, he continued to attract investors, with new money coming in used to pay those who wished to withdraw their funds.
Von Badlo’s role in the scam was to promote Hope’s scheme to a large group of investors. Over 75 investors gave £4.29 million to Hope as a result of Von Badlo’s actions.
Von Badlo’s house was searched in May 2012 and he was arrested. He eventually pleaded guilty to the offences for which he was sentenced on 22 July 2014.
Commenting on the case, Georgina Philippou, acting director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Alex Hope presented himself as a trader with a flair for trading on the foreign exchange markets when in reality he spent a good deal of his investors’ money on himself.
“With the assistance of Raj Von Badlo, Alex Hope enticed dozens to invest considerable sums in his fraudulent scheme.
“This case shows that the FCA will vigorously protect consumers from those who break the law and do whatever it can to get their money back to them.”
As recently as last year Shastri was speaking at property investment seminars run by 121 Invest telling potential BTL investors how to make money in property. He also had links to the notorious Inside Track.
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