A United Kingdom court has sentenced two men for engaging in cryptocurrency fraud, which resulted in losses of over $2 million. The two men, Raymondip Bedi (35 years old) and Patrick Mavanga (40 years old), were sentenced for a combined 12 years for committing fraud. The pair cold-called people, masquerading as financial advisers, but leading people to their scam websites. The scam occurred between 2017 and 2019. Police estimate that the pair scammed around $2 million from 65 victims. The UK courts released a statement about the case, naming Raymondip Bedi and Patrick Mavanga as the scammers who extorted £1.5 million from investors, equivalent to approximately $2 million. The FCA prosecuted the two individuals and found them guilty of fraud. Bedi was sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in prison. Mavanga was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in jail. Both men operated under companies CCX Capital and Astaria Group LLP. The court revealed that the pair sought to undermine the financial regulatory system and continued to extract their illicit gains after the scam was complete. The court requested that victims of the fraud reach out for support and receive assistance with identifying scams in the future. The high-pressure sales scam targeted retail investors with little experience using cryptocurrencies. The pair sold their fake assets, pretending to offer a legitimate investment opportunity. The pair enticed investors with attractive sales materials and outlandish claims of future profits. Investors often would give the pair thousands of pounds in the hope of making a profit. The court case included victim impact statements. Some investors developed mental health symptoms after the scam. Others had to go into debt to pay off their losses. Some investors used their life savings for the investment and lost everything. Judge Griffiths, who presided over the case, said that the two men were equally involved in the scam and intended to disregard the laws related to financial regulations. The pair pleaded guilty in 2023. However, Mavanga was caught committing extra offences, hiding phone recordings of Bedi and himself discussing the scam. The court slammed the two for defrauding customers. It was mentioned that dozens of people had sought investment opportunities to generate a return on their investment. The two men pleaded guilty in 2023 for defrauding 65 investors of around $2 million. The case took a long time to resolve because the FCA had a large backlog of cases, some going back to 2016. The FCA has been focusing on crypto cases and has a long list of cases involving false advertising of crypto investments. The UK court was able to finalise this lengthy process and hopefully could bring some closure to the victims of the scam. The prosecution side of crypto regulations is the final step in a protracted process. However, the lengthy process reveals that the regulations are only as effective as the resources available to enforce them.
