The boss of an online marketing firm paid to advertise unregulated investment products of collapsed London Capital and Finance (LCF) has been arrested by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Paul Careless, owner of Surge Financial, was arrested on Wednesday and released pending further investigation.
The SFO said: “On 19 June 2019, search warrants were executed at several properties in the home counties. One individual was arrested and released pending further investigation. The operation was conducted with the assistance of the National Crime Agency.”
He is the fifth person to be arrested over the case after four arrests in the Kent and Sussex areas in March 2019.
All were released pending further investigation.
Marketing
Surge Financial was reportedly paid millions of pounds by LCF for marketing and customer services, carrying out online sales techniques through social media, according to London-based newspaper Evening Standard.
LCF took £236m ($313.3m, €276m) of investors’ funds after issuing “misleading” minibonds and Isas on a non-advised basis, promising 8% returns to clients.
A spokesperson for Surge Financial added: “Paul Careless has not been charged and he is not on bail. Surge was a third party supplier of services used in relation to raising investment for LCF.
“It did not handle client money and had no involvement in the deployment of funds to borrowing companies.”
Collapse
LCF’s minibonds allowed investors to lend money directly to businesses and are, in effect, IOUs that the companies sell to investors.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has opened a registration process for customers and, on May 31, the lifeboat fund said it believes there are “sufficient grounds” to continue exploring investor compensation against the firm.
On 23 May 2019, HM Revenue and Customs appointed Dame Elizabeth Gloster to head up the investigation into LCF.
