Former investment adviser and convicted money launderer Richard Faithfull has been sentenced to an additional 499 days in prison for failing to fully pay the money owed under a Confiscation Order.
Mr Faithfull, 36, was convicted of a ‘boiler room’ fraud in September 2021.
In 2021 he was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison for laundering £2.5m, following a prosecution brought by the FCA.
He was released from custody in June 2025 but will now return to prison.
Mr Faithfull was part of a trans-national organised crime group which laundered the proceeds of at least seven overseas investment frauds which pushed worthless shares between June 2017 and August 2018.
The FCA said Mr Faithfull was able to use knowledge gained when he worked in the regulated sector as an investment adviser to help his fellow fraudsters to defraud victims by paying fictional 'dividends' from bank accounts controlled by him.
The payments made it look as though the underlying investments were generating returns. He also involved innocent parties to help assist with his criminal enterprise.
To avoid detection at the time his crimes were uncovered he fled to Ukraine and lived a life of luxury while continuing his criminal activities, enlisting the assistance of local criminal groups abroad.
When he was originally sentenced, the Judge said that Mr Faithfull’s was “serious offending” linked to the “human misery caused by boiler room fraud” and that “money coming in (to accounts controlled by Faithfull) was not being invested, it was simply being slaughtered.”
In 2023 the FCA won a Confiscation Order for £562,636 against Mr Faithfull.
The court hearing decided that Mr Faithfull’s criminal benefit from the frauds was £4,130,936.
However, the Confiscation Order amount imposed was lower at £562,636, based on the Court’s findings on his available assets.
The Order was subsequently varied downwards to £529,961 in March 2024. However, he has only paid £349,214.37.
Steve Smart, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said:
“Mr Faithfull’s crimes enabled millions of pounds to be scammed from innocent victims. He tried to evade justice. Now, having failed to repay what he should, it’s right he is put back behind bars.”
The additional prison sentence was activated on Friday 8 May at a City of London Magistrates’ Court hearing.
Even after serving the sentence in default of payment, Mr Faithfull will continue to be liable for the outstanding debt. Money recovered from Mr Faithfull will be used to compensate the victims of his crimes.