The sentencing of Richard Pope, 55, Paul Gunter, 64, and Simon Odoni, 56, is a “major milestone” in a seven-year trans-Atlantic investigation, according to an announcement made yesterday by the City of London Police.

The trio coordinated a network of Spanish boiler rooms employing hundreds of people to “ruthlessly target investors using high pressure and misleading sales techniques,” it said. “The enormity of the case was first discovered when the City of London Police linked a number of investigations in the UK to those being conducted by Federal Agencies in the US.”

At least 2,300 people in the UK lost money to the fraud, with individual losses ranging from “a few hundred pounds up to a million pounds.”  

The funds were used to expand the criminal network and subsidize the gang's extravagant lifestyles, including the purchase of a £350,000 private jet, 26 properties in the US, three in the Dominican Republic, and numerous high-value cars and speed boats.

According to the announcement, in March 2009 the US Attorney’s Office charged seven defendants, including Pope, Odoni and Gunter, with offences including money laundering and mail and wire fraud. Then, in March 2011, Pope pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Two US lawyers were a year later found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The trial of Gunter and Odoni took place in March of this year and they were found guilty in April.

The City of London Police worked with US law enforcement agencies and was supported by the Serious Fraud Office, Spanish National Police and Norfolk Police in its investigation.