Duo sentenced in wake of £1.5 million crypto fraud and FCA investigation

Between February 2017 and June 2019, Raymondip Bedi (of Bromley) and Patrick Mavanga (of Peckham) cold-called victims and sold fake investments in crypto. At least 65 investors were defrauded and lost out to the tune of £1,541,799.

At Southwark Crown Court, Bedi was sentenced by his Honour Judge Griffiths to five years and four months, while Mavanga has been sentenced to six years and six months.

Confiscation proceedings are continuing to recover the benefits from the crimes of both defendants.

In sentencing, His Honour Judge Griffiths remarked that Bedi and Mavanga “were both leading players in a conspiracy whereby the victims of the fraud were persuaded to invest in crypto currency consultancy’ and ‘you conspired to drive a coach and horses through the regulatory system”.

Cost of crime

Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Bedi and Mavanga ruthlessly defrauded dozens of innocent victims. It’s right that they have received these prison sentences. Criminals need to know that there’s a cost attached to committing crime and we will seek to make them pay.”

Bedi had previously pleaded guilty to four charges on 2 May 2023. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to breach the general prohibition under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and money laundering offences at an earlier hearing.

Mavanga pleaded guilty to three charges on 9 June 2023. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to breach the general prohibition under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and possession of false identification documents with an improper intention at an earlier hearing.

Mavanga was also convicted of perverting the course of justice on 7 November 2024 for the deletion of phone call recordings following the arrest of Raymondip Bedi in March 2019.