A businessman whose company claimed to help people who wanted to emigrate to the US is being investigated by the US Secret Service following allegations that he stole more than £10 million (US$14.7 million) from clients.
Derick Coles, who has homes in Mayfair, London and Florida, promised to set up secure bank accounts for Britons who wished to obtain green cards through a US government-approved scheme.
His alleged victims claim that, after they wired money to the supposedly secure account, it was stolen. The theft has left many people’s dreams of starting a new life in the US in tatters.
The claims have sparked an international search for evidence and victims of Coles’ alleged scams. Scotland Yard has been in touch with the US immigration and customs authorities and the FBI.
Coles, 62, who has been described as a convincing and personable grandfather figure, used his company, New Horizons Group, to woo dozens of customers at a series of meetings in hotels across the UK. His alleged victims were those who wished to move to the US under the EB-5 visa scheme, which demands that emigrants deposit money in a secure escrow account, but expected to have it returned to them at a future date. Escrow is a legal arrangement in which money is delivered to an agent to be held in trust.
John Joyce, a spokesman for the Secret Service office in Tampa, Florida, said that officials have launched a comprehensive investigation into the fraud allegations.
“The US Secret Service Tampa field office is investigating a number of complaints from British citizens who have apparently been victims of a fraud scheme in which they thought their large financial investment would ultimately allow them to obtain their green card giving them permanent residential status in the US,” Joyce said. “This office is actively pursuing this case and I am optimistic that those who are responsible will be vigorously prosecuted for any criminal activity.”
He called for alleged victims to come forward and contact the US authorities.
Stuart Layton, 44, a professional golfer, from Felsted, Essex, invested US$410,000 with Coles after they had met at a hotel in Dartford, Kent. He and his wife, Paula, wished to launch a new career in the US with their five children after cashing in endowment policies, stocks and shares, selling cars and borrowing money from their parents. They wired the money to Coles’ supposed escrow account last July and August. In November, however, they were told by a US official that the funds had been misappropriated.
“It has wiped us out, we have to start again,” Layton said. “We are absolutely distraught and feel the same as others that we have been duped into believing our dreams could come true.”
Their hopes of moving to Florida had become urgent, because their 11-year-old son Ross suffers from chronic arthritis and requires a warm climate.
Coles, who was born in Bournemouth, could not be contacted at his Mayfair mews home, on sale for £1.25 million.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
RSS