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.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS