A man in the UK who took £612,807 ($730,271) from 14 family friends for a fake sports betting scheme has been jailed for four and a half years.
Richard Evans talked the people into believing that he had developed a spread betting system that would generate guaranteed returns of at least 15% annually. In 2014, they signed contracts for their money to go towards a fake company named Sports Trust; the scam lasted for seven years.
wagers totaled £106,000 ($126,318) and he generated a loss of nearly £53,000 ($63,159)
While Evans placed sports bets with much of the money, he also used the funds to pay his mortgage and go to nice restaurants. His wagers totaled £106,000 ($126,318) and he generated a loss of nearly £53,000 ($63,159).
The 41-year-old was able to keep the scheme going for so long by creating fake annual profit statements and by encouraging investors to keep their money in the plan. Whenever someone tried to withdraw funds, he would stall or delay repayments.
Some of the investors eventually realized something untoward was happening and they filed a report with the police towards the end of 2021. The father-of-two ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering and one count of fraud.
