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.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS