Richard Rufus, who is a former Charlton Athletic player, has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.
The Southwark Crown Court found the 47-year-old guilty of money laundering, fraud and carrying out a regulated activity on Thursday.
After claiming to be a successful foreign exchange trader, Rufus convinced his victims to invest in his ‘low-risk’ scheme. Rufus had convinced his victims that their investment would see returns of around 60% in a year, the authorities found.
Some of the £15 million invested by people was used by Rufus to pay back investors in a pyramid-style scheme, like using funds from new investors to pay back older ones. He also used the rest of the money to maintain the lifestyle of an elite professional footballer.
Rufus also claimed to have falsely made multi-million pound returns for a church and exceptional returns for some footballers for whom he had invested money but who he cannot identify for confidentiality reasons.
After a knee injury, the defender was forced into retirement in 2004. But he continued to drive a Bentley, wear a Rolex watch and live in a five-bedroom house on a private estate in Purley, south London.
Crown Prosecution Service’s Roger Makanjuola said that Rufus acted in a selfish manner without any concern for his victims. The former player took advantage of his status as a professional athlete, a church member and he used the goodwill of his family and friends to scam them out of millions of pounds by claiming falsely that he can offer a low-risk investment in the Foreign Exchange Market.
Rufus also claimed that he had been successful in his investment strategies earlier, but the investments were fraught with risk and he lost much needed money of his victims to the amount of around £15 million. While making these huge losses, he put around £2 million in his personal accounts, allegedly for the purposes of investment but this was never transferred to his trading account. We have now commenced confiscation proceedings to recover his ill-gotten gains, Makanjuola added.
FAQs:
- How old is Richard Rufus?
47 years old - For how many years has Richard Rufus been sentenced to jail?
Seven-and-a-half years
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