WE’RE WATCHING YOU
A PAIR of South London fraudsters who cheated 2,000 investors out of £37million have each been jailed for 11 years.
Andrew Nathaniel Skeene, 44, and Junie Conrad Omari Bowers, 45, were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court last Wednesday after being convicted a few weeks ago of conspiracy to defraud.
The duo were behind Global Forestry Investments, which they launched in 2009, claiming it was an ethical scheme to plant and grow teak trees in Brazil.
Advertisements offered an annual yield of 12 per cent, but I warned at the time that Skeene was already behind a dodgy scheme that promised a 30 per cent return from property developments in Dubai.
Global Forestry Investments collapsed in 2014 and Skeene and Bowers were declared bankrupt. The Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation in 2015 and the two men were charged in 2019. SFO investigators found that almost no work was done on the Brazilian plantations. The pair had withdrawn about £750,000 in cash and were known to have spent a further £2million of investors’ money on luxury living and entertainment.
Skeene paid for his lavish wedding with investors’ savings and pension pots, and Bowers bought a Bentley Continental GT. Lisa Osofsky, head of the SFO, said: ‘The sentencing warns fraudsters that if they choose to play fast and loose with others’ hard-earned savings or pensions, we will pursue them and they will be held accountable for their crimes.’ The SFO is bringing seven more fraud cases to court by the end of the year, involving 18 defendants and more than £500 million.