Fraudulent foreign exchange trader pleads guilty to £20.5m Ponzi scheme

Article summary

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced that fraudulent foreign exchange trader, Joseph Lewis, pleaded guilty to a £20.5m international investment scam. Lewis pleaded guilty to 19 fraud offences at Southwark Crown Court, which most notably included his involvement in a Ponzi scheme which he had been running since 2009. Lewis had taken millions of pounds from people who believed they were investing in foreign exchange trading and send them fraudulent monthly reports which made it seem as if their investments were doing exceptionally well. Instead, investors' money had been paid into Lewis' personal accounts and was used to pay for lavish events around the world, as well as paying other clients. When Lewis used his final client's investment of £279,000, he was forced to admit to investors that the funds had gone. Lewis emailed his clients and told them he had not been trading with their investments since 2009, after which he went to...