Branson a victim of brazen fraudster

– Richard Branson, billionaire founder of the Virgin group, has revealed he was targeted by a fraudster posing as Britain’s defence minister who tried to get him to contribute $5 million to a supposed secret ransom payment.

Appealing for information to help identify the conman, Branson said he suspected the same person had later impersonated him to steal $2 million from a friend of his by pretending to raise funds for people affected by Hurricane Irma.

“This story sounds like it has come straight out of a John le Carre book or a James Bond film, but it is sadly all true,” Branson wrote in a blog.

Branson wrote that six months ago, after an elaborate set-up involving a note on fake government notepaper, he spoke on the phone to someone purporting to be Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.

The man told Branson a British diplomat had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom by terrorists. He said while the government did not pay ransoms, there was a particularly sensitive reason why the diplomat had to be saved, and the government was confidentially asking a syndicate of British business people to step in.

“I was asked to contribute $5 million of the ransom money,” Branson wrote.

Feeling suspicious, Branson checked with the government and was told that Fallon had not spoken to him. –