(Bloomberg) -- Bosses at London Capital & Finance Plc ran a ponzi scheme to collect hundreds of millions of pounds from retail investors, spending much of it on themselves, a London judge ruled.
LCF’s former director Michael Andrew Thomson, shadow director Spencer Golding, and several associates were liable for violating their duties to the company and must pay compensation, the court ruled on a claim brought by the company’s joint administrators.
The company’s collapse in 2019, known as the mini-bond scandal, wiped out £237 million ($299 million) invested in illiquid securities by about 11,000 customers. The fallout led to criticism of the UK’s financial regulator for sluggish investigative culture and a £15 million fine against auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for failing to report any fraud suspicions.
“Thomson deliberately and cynically procured LCF to present itself so as to maximize sales, knowing that bondholders were given a false and misleading story,” Judge Robert Miles said in the ruling published Thursday. The false representations were “systematic and widespread.”
Thompson and the associates diverted a substantial part of the money to “use these sums as they wished” under payments cloaked as sale and purchase agreements, the judge found. Golding was “the ultimate architect of LCF’s fund-raising scheme” and his conduct was “objectively dishonest throughout,” the judge said.
“Mr. Thomson is surprised and disappointed by the terms of the judgment but has no other comment to make at this time,” his lawyers said.
Golding was not allowed to defend himself in the case after he failed to comply with the court’s order to disclose certain documents. Golding’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to an email asking for comment.
The defunct firm now owes over £379 million to its creditors, according the ruling. The court will hold further hearings to decide the amounts they need to pay out for their conduct.
“The administrators will now be in a position where they can realize very substantial sums from the defendants for the benefit of the creditors of LCF and London Oil & Gas Limited,” Finbarr O’Connell said on behalf of the joint administrators.
(Updates with details from the judgment throughout)
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