The FCA has today (5 August) secured a confiscation order against Reuben Akpojaro, the fourth individual involved in a £1.2m investment scam which saw 120 investors conned out of their savings.

The watchdog secured confiscation orders in May against three other individuals also involved in the boiler room fraud: Raheel Mirza, Cameron Vickers and Opeyemi Solaja.

Cameron Vickers made a successful application to reduce his confiscation order. As a result, the confiscation orders secured by the FCA against all the defendants totals £293,726.16. This amounts to all their remaining assets, the FCA said.

Between June 2016 and January 2020, the defendants cold called people to convince them to invest with them but instead used the money to bankroll their lifestyles. The fraudsters claimed to be trading their clients' money in binary options

In 2023 they were convicted and sentenced to a combined 24 and a half years for investment fraud.

The FCA said the confiscated money will be returned to investors at the “earliest opportunity”. Failure to meet the confiscation order can lead to further imprisonment.

At the time of the confiscate hearing in May, Steve Smart, FCA executive director, enforcement and market oversight, said: “We are committed to fighting financial crime, including denying criminals their ill-gotten gains. We’ve already successfully prosecuted these individuals for their part in a scam that conned 120 people out of their money. We’re now seeking to recover as much as we can for victims.”

On 3 April 2023, following an 8-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, Cameron Vickers, then 27, Raheel Mirza, then 38 and Opeyemi Solaja, then 33, were convicted of conspiracy to defraud investors through a fake, London-based company called Bespoke Markets Group (BMG).

Their scam fleeced around 120 UK investors. Raheel Mirza was further convicted of perverting the course of justice and Reuben Akpojaro, then 40, was convicted for offering binary option investments without FCA authorisation. Mr Akpojaro was acquitted of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.

Cameron Vickers, Raheel Mirza, Opeyemi Solaja and Reuben Akpojaro made cold calls to members of the public, using pseudonyms, to convince them to invest with BMG. Various UK and offshore companies and bank accounts were set up to try to distance the defendants from the fraud and to launder money.

They claimed to trade their clients’ monies in 'Binary Options', when in reality the money was shared among the fraudsters to fund their lifestyles. To encourage people to invest or invest more, BMG offered to match investments with their own funds and refund losses in the first 3-6 months. The investors had access to a sophisticated online platform that appeared to show their funds being traded, however, this was manipulated to show trading activity when there was none.