Inaugural SFO trial of 2022 results in double conviction

An SFO investigation, conducted with assistance from partner agencies across the globe, revealed that Andrew Nathaniel Skeene and Junie Conrad Omari Bowers had deceived around 2,000 investors.

Global Forestry Investments was presented as a secure, well-managed, ethical investment scheme that would help to protect the Amazon rainforest and support local communities. In reality, the pair were enriching themselves with the investors’ savings and pensions.

At Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday 31 May, a Jury returned guilty verdicts for both Skeene and Bowers on three counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of misconduct in the course of winding up a company.

Lisa Osofsky, director of the SFO, commented: “Our international investigation exposed an intricate web of money transfers, forged documents and invented identities used to scam pensioners and savers out of their money under the false pretence of environmental protection. The guilty verdicts on all charges mark a significant step towards achieving justice for over 2,000 victims. We will not stop fighting fraud and are proud to have brought this matter to justice.”

The SFO’s investigation into Global Forestry Investments was announced on 25 February 2015. The Brazilian Ministério Público Federal provided extensive help to the SFO’s investigation pursuant to mutual legal assistance requests, including with interviews of various Brazilian witnesses across two trips the SFO team made to Brazil.

Fake investment scheme

The SFO can also confirm the imprisonment of a convicted fraudster who conned investors out of £72.5 million with false claims of supplying services to the London Olympic Village.

At the City of London Magistrates’ Court on Friday 27 May, Michael Strubel was committed to prison for six years and seven months for failing to pay his confiscation order.

The SFO referred the matter to court after Strubel failed to adequately pay back the money he made from his crimes following his conviction in 2016.

The SFO revealed in 2015 how Strubel, along with co-conspirators Jolan Saunders and Spencer Steinberg, sought investment in their company by exaggerating their electrical supply contracts in the hotel industry and lying about a non-existent contract to supply the Olympic Village for the London 2012 Olympic Games. They used this Ponzi-style scheme to buy themselves luxury cars, motorbikes and expensive property.

The SFO later uncovered that Strubel had also hidden his fraudulently obtained assets in loans and investments, including £255,500 that investigators found he had invested in wine. In 2019, the court ordered Strubel to repay £2,131,362.30, over £1.4 million of which remains outstanding.

Making amends for crime  

Committing him to prison, District Judge Louisa Ciecióra said Strubel’s continued failure to pay the order “looks an awful lot like, at best, culpable negligence, but at worst wilful refusal”.

Accounting for the payments already made toward the order, Strubel was committed to prison, where he will serve a total of 2,420 days (approximately six years and seven months).

Emma Luxton, head of proceeds of crime and international assistance at the SFO, noted: “We will not let fraudsters refuse to make amends for their crimes. The SFO has relentlessly pursued the recovery of criminal funds from Strubel since his conviction in 2016. This outcome sends a message to others who are found guilty of fraud that they will be held accountable for their crimes.”