A banker has been sentenced to four and a half years behind bars after a joint investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and City of London Police uncovered a man’s role in laundering boiler room funds.
The convicted fraudster, Michael McInerney from Richmond, North Yorkshire, was given the hefty sentence for three counts of money laundering whilst acting as a bank for fraudulent share sales.
These sales were conducted by a trio, Tomas Wilmot, Kevin Wilmot and Christopher Wilmot, who ran a ring of boiler rooms which conned around 1,700 investors out of £27.5 million. All three were subsequently jailed for a total of 19 years back in August 2011, reports Citywire.
The Wilmots put their earnings from the fraud into two UK bank accounts with the help of McInerney who was taken on in 2005 by the trio to disguise their roles in the fraud.
McInerney opened further bank accounts, ostensibly for property management purposes, in the names of Rock Solid Management, Worldwide Assets and Universal Management Services, which he paid £12 million into between January 2006 and October 2007.
He also transferred funds to numerous off-shore accounts held in Jersey and Malta and later distributed to further accounts across the world.
Commenting on the sentencing of McInerney, Tracey McDermott, the FSA’s acting director of enforcement and financial crime said: “This is another key step in our continuing fight against the serious threat to consumers that is share fraud. McInerney played a key role in the Wilmots’ complex and elaborate con and he is now paying a very heavy price for doing so.
“This sentence sends a clear message that the court takes boiler room offences seriously and will hand down significant sentences to those involved in them,” Citywire reports.
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