Stockbroker conned clients out of £32m in Ponzi scheme

 
Nicholas Levene Pic:Central News
Central News
Paul Cheston24 September 2012
WEST END FINAL

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A City stockbroker was warned today that he faced a lengthy prison sentence after admitting a £32  million Ponzi fraud.

Nicholas Levene, 48, former deputy chairman of Leyton Orient FC, cheated investors by promising them high returns. Levene, nicknamed “Beano” because of his love of the comic, then kept customers happy by using other investors’ money to show that they were earning healthy yields.

Among his victims were brother and sister Brian Souter and Ann Gloag, the co-founders of Stagecoach Group, who lost £10 million.

Levene, of Barnet, had been due to stand trial next month but pleaded guilty at Southwark crown court today to 12 counts of fraud, one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception and one count of false accounting.

Investors believed they were being offered shares in a range of companies, including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Imperial Energy and Rio Tinto. Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC told the court: “The fraud counts to which Mr Levene has now pleaded guilty are in the sum of £32,352,027.83.”

Judge Martin Beddoe told Levene that he should expect “substantial sentences of imprisonment”.

Levene’s fraud began in April 2005 when he persuaded Tadco Limited to part with £571,261 on the pretence that he would buy 140,000 shares in Imperial Energy.

In 2007, he tricked Yigal Ahouvi into paying £14.9 million into an account in Monaco. A year later he duped Timothy Hutchins and Parviz Hakim Rad out of £1  million. In 2009, he defrauded Julan Shah out of £1.6  million and took £10  million from Mr Souter and Mrs Gloag. He defrauded Philip Bowman and Timothy Clink out of £500,000 and took £1.6  million from Simon Holden, Marvin Mermelstein, Akiva Klein and Jacob Sofer. He also admitted taking £1 million from Glenn Coleman and £1.3 million from Russell Bartlett.

Levene was granted conditional bail and will be sentenced on October 22.

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