LONDON, June 11 -- The government of the United Kingdom issued the following news:
Today,theSFOsecureda£96,000confiscation order againstSteven John Murphy,50,after uncoveringadditionalassets related to hisrole inaboiler-roomfraud.The funds will go straight back to the public purse.
Murphy was one of seven men whodefraudedthousands of UK investors out of£8.2 million through an east-London registered but Spain-basedsham biofuel company called Worldwide Bio Refineries (WBR).
SFO investigators recently uncovered that Murphy held equity in a UK property that had been purchased using the proceeds of crime, and acted quickly to recover £96k.
Murphy was convictedin 2011afteran SFO investigation revealedthat WBR deceivedinvestors using high-pressure telesales techniques.
Whileinvestors were led to believe theirmoney was funding a legitimate green energy venture, more than half of the funds were siphoned off into the defendants' personal accounts in Cyprus,Jerseyand Spain, with further millions squandered on overseas trips.
Murphy was sentenced to six years' imprisonmentandhas already paid back over£117,000viaa previousSFOconfiscation order.
The SFO'ssuccessful prosecution led to a combined prison sentence of just over 39years.
In total, SFO proceeds of crime investigatorswill havesecuredover £436,000fromthedefendantsto date.
Paul Napper,Head of Proceeds of Crime and International Assistance Divisionat the SFO, said:
A conviction is never the finish line for the SFO.StevenMurphy helped run a calculated fraud thatdeprivedthousands of their savings.Our proceeds of crime teamwillrelentlesslypursueill-gotten gains, for as long as it takes.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
