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Further charges levied against Lumiere Wealth’s Chris Byrne

By Kirsten Hastings, 8 Nov 16

The founder and managing director of defunct Jersey-based IFA firm Lumiere Wealth, Christopher Byrne, is facing further charges relating to making false promises to persuade someone to invest.

The founder and managing director of defunct Jersey-based IFA firm Lumiere Wealth, Christopher Byrne, is facing further charges relating to making false promises to persuade someone to invest.

According to BBC Radio Jersey, he has also been charged with providing regulators with misleading information, and failing to provide regulators with requested documents.

Jersey’s Magistrate’s Court heard the charges relate to a multi-million pound investment scheme with links to Jersey, Guernsey, Brazil, and the US.

Lumiere Wealth MD arrest

Byrne first appeared in court in October charged with falsely obtaining money from a pensioner. On Monday, he faced a further three charges.

The allegations are that, in 2014, he made a statement, promise, or forecast that he knew to be misleading, false or dishonest in order to persuade a woman in her 60s to invest £200,000 ($248,616, €224,636).

The other two new charges relate to this summer, when Byrne is accused of knowingly or recklessly providing the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) with false or misleading information and failing to provide the commission with information requested. 

Byrne was again refused bail. He been deemed a potential flight risk during his first court appearance having reportedly purchased a one-way ticket to Luton.

He was remanded in custody and will appear again on 5 December.

Jersey wind-up

Lumiere Wealth was ordered to be wound up by the Royal Court of Jersey on 4 October. The IFA firm was majority owned by Guernsey-based Providence Global and promoted the Providence Investment Funds PCC, which offered investors returns of up to 14% from a Brazilian financial operation.

When contacted by International Adviser in August, Lumiere Wealth advised that Byrne had left the company in June “due to ill health”. 

Guernsey Providence wind-up

The Royal Court of Guernsey ordered the winding up of Providence Global in August, having appointed administrators to its subsidiaries Providence Investment Funds (PIF) and Providence Investment Management International earlier the same month.

The wind-up application was brought by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) after all of the directors of both companies resigned on 4 and 5 August, having informed investors that the fund had been suspended on 29 July.

Brazil factoring

Lumiere’s clients, along with others, invested money in a Providence fund that loaned money to the firm’s factoring company in Brazil for between 30 and 180 days. The short-term debt was purchased at a discount of more than 2% per month with the returns collected at par.

The minimum investment in the fund was $50,000, €37,500, or £30,000.

Click through to the next page to read about the global investigation…

Pages: Page 1, Page 2

Tags: Brazil | Guernsey | Jersey | Lumiere Wealth

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International Adviser covers the global intermediary market that uses cross-border insurance, investments, banking and pension products on behalf of their high-net-worth clients. No news, articles or content may be reproduced in part or in full without express permission of International Adviser.