A devastating High Court ruling has declared London Capital & Finance (LCF) operated as a Ponzi scheme, with the firm’s former chief executive and four associates found liable for damages. The judgement reveals the company misrepresented itself in what the court described as a “widespread, fundamental and systematic” manner.
The failed investment firm, which collected approximately £237 million from nearly 12,000 investors before its 2019 collapse, now faces substantial compensation payouts. The High Court in London determined that five individuals “knowingly participated” in fraudulent activities, including former CEO Michael “Andy” Thomson and shareholder Spencer Golding, who were found to have breached their directorial duties.
Three additional individuals – Paul Careless, John Russell-Murphy and Robert Sedgwick – were found to have “dishonestly assisted” in the scheme. The total owed to creditors has ballooned to £379 million, encompassing both the Financial Services Compensation Scheme’s £172 million payout to victims and individual investors whose substantial investments exceeded compensation limits.
The 335-page ruling exposes one of Britain’s most significant retail investment scandals in recent memory. The scheme’s collapse triggered a £15 million fine for audit firm PwC and highlighted serious supervision failures by the Financial Conduct Authority.
LCF had marketed itself as providing high-yield investments through financing small and medium-sized UK companies. The reality, as Justice Miles revealed, showed a substantial portion of investor funds were misappropriated for personal expenditure, including luxury items such as diamond earrings, horses, and shotguns.
The court’s determination that LCF operated as a Ponzi scheme was based on its dependency on new investor funds to pay existing investors, with “no independent source of income.” The administrator, Finbarr O’Connell of Evelyn Partners, has indicated that substantial sums will now be recoverable for creditors.
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