A jury at Birmingham Crown Court last week found the pair guilty of perpetrating the transatlantic fraud, which involved luring investors by saying Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir David Frost had invested in the scheme, when neither had.
Alan White, 49, and Shinder Gangar (pictured), 46, were both partners in Dobb White & Co.
Instead of receiving generous returns, investors were paid out only ‘interest’ payments generated from new clients, while the pair used the ‘investments’ to provide unsecured loans to acquaintances as well as for the purchase of properties.
The pair were also found guilty of trying to bribe the US Attorney General to release funds which had been frozen following an investigation into their US accomplice, Terry Dowdell.
Gangar a former member of the ICAEW, whose membership lapsed in 2003 due to bankruptcy was described as the ‘frontman’ of the operation.
White, a former member of ACCA, was the ‘administrator’ who would give investing clients the ‘co-ordinates’ of where they should direct their cash.
Celebrities were called to court after witness accounts of how Gangar dropped names of influential people, whom he said were investing in his scheme. Sir David Frost and Lord Lloyd Webber both made appearances at court. Sir Andrew said he had agreed to meet Gangar, who had invested £1.2m in his company, the Really Useful Group.
‘He [Gangar] suggested to me that because I was a member of the House of Lords and with my other connections there might be people who I could also introduce to the scheme, for which I might receive some introductory commission. I decided that this was not something I would do,’ said Lord Lloyd Webber.
Sir David told of how he was introduced to Gangar as a investor for a film which was never made.
One of the Serious Fraud Office’s witnesses Elizabeth Watson, whose family were also caught up in the scheme told the jury that Gangar had ‘impressed’ her when she first met him in 2001.
‘He seemed to be dealing with well-known celebrities and was doing well. He gave me the impression he was a globetrotter… Gangar showed me a contract signed by Andrew Lloyd Webber… I understood Lloyd Webber had invested in his scheme,’ said Watson.
Watson invested £400,000 in the scheme, while other members of her family put in a further £300,000.
The pair are yet to be sentenced.
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