Carbon credit crook is jailed for eight years
A CAREER criminal linked to at least half a dozen scam companies is now starting an eight-year jail sentence after being found guilty of six counts of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.
Sami Raja, 32, from Grays in Essex, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of mis-selling carbon credits as investments. He and his gang pocketed £1.5million by purchasing carbon credits priced at between 25p and 35p and then selling them for up to £6.50 apiece with claims they could double in value.
In fact, there was no secondary market that would allow investors to turn their carbon credit certificates back into cash.
I first warned against carbon credit rip-offs in 2012 and three years ago I named Raja in print as one of those responsible. He was also behind Elite Gems Limited, which The Mail on Sunday exposed as a scam in 2015, and a director of Gallisard Limited, which marketed rare earth metals with false promises of up to 60 per cent profits.
Previously, Raja was a salesman with corrupt stockbrokers White Square Investments. The firm – now defunct – was run by fraudster Stephen Todd, who is himself currently in jail. Todd and Raja have not been banned from the City and still appear on the investment adviser register of the Financial Conduct Authority, listed simply as ‘inactive’.
Hayley Wade, of the City of London Police who led the investigation into Raja’s scam, said: ‘Raja cruelly targeted often elderly individuals with the intention of defrauding them of their life savings. He clearly felt no remorse, closing one company, only to set up another and commit the same offences.’
Michael Nascimento, 41, from Chislehurst in Kent, was jailed for two years in addition to 11 years he is already serving for separate frauds. Sandeep Dosanjh, 30, from Grays in Essex, was sentenced to four years and six months. Charanjit Sandhu, 28 and also from Grays, was given three years on top of six years he is already serving for other scams.
James Lanston, 28, of Greenhithe in Kent, was sentenced to two years and three months.