At Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 2 August 2021 Jolan Saunders was jailed for almost nine years for failing to pay his multi-million-pound confiscation order.
SFO Investigation | Rosenblatt’s Financial Crime Team
In 2015 the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) secured convictions against Jolan Saunders and his co-conspirators Michael Strubel and Spencer Steinberg after it was shown that the men deceived individuals into investing in Saunders Electrical Wholesale Limited by lying about supply contracts. The men were held to have overstated contracts with the Hilton, Marriott, Plaza and Holiday Inn hotel chains. The fraudsters also fabricated a non-existent contract to supply the Olympic village for the London 2012 Olympics.
The three men took almost £80m from investors which they spent on yachts, expensive property and luxury cars. Mr Saunders and Mr Strubel were both jailed for seven years whilst Mr Steinberg was jailed for 6 years and nine months.
Despite the SFO providing evidence to show Mr Saunders £4.5m in hidden assets from the aforementioned frauds he has made no attempt to use this money to settle his confiscation order. Mr Saunders has instead stalled and asserted that he intends to settle the confiscation order through “major project works at blue chip hotels.” This statement however, appears unsubstantiated and merely echoes the false claims he made to those he defrauded previously.
Following Mr Saunders’ failure to pay his confiscation order, the Magistrates’ Court activated his default prison sentence of 3,236 days being just under nine years. When taking into consideration the accrued interest and the small amounts paid by Mr Saunders to date the outstanding amount at 27 July 2021 is £5,756,311.46.
John Carroll, Chief Operating Officer at the SFO noted that, “with callous disdain for those he has harmed, Jolan Saunders has resorted to falsehoods and obfuscation to avoid paying compensation to the victims of his pernicious fraud. We will not allow him to do so. He has rightly been jailed and we will continue to fight to deliver justice and return compensation to his victims.”
Rosenblatt can help
Rosenblatt has a wealth of experience in financial crime and is uniquely placed to support clients that are the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation and prosecution having being involved in high profile investigations into a global pharmaceuticals company, a multi-million-pound affordable property investment scheme, a multi-million pound pension fraud scheme and a world leading global security company.
https://www.rosenblatt-law.co.uk/services/financial-crime/
(Source: London fraudster jailed for failing to pay confiscation order – Serious Fraud Office (sfo.gov.uk))
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