Former Collateral administrators Peter and Andrew Currie have been convicted of fraud following a five-week trial.
The brothers, who headed up the collapsed peer-to-peer lending platform, every confronted one cost of fraud by false illustration, one cost of fraud by abuse of place and one cost of changing legal property at Southwark Crown Courtroom.
It’s alleged that the Curries falsely instructed traders that Collateral was authorised by the Monetary Conduct Authority (FCA).
Peter, 59, was convicted by unanimous verdicts of two counts of fraud and one in every of cash laundering and Andrew, 57, was convicted of 1 rely of fraud and one in every of cash laundering at Southwark Crown Courtroom.
Andrew was acquitted of 1 rely of fraud.
Learn extra: Collateral trial – traders say obvious FCA approval drove determination
Earlier than its collapse into administration in February 2018, Collateral supplied peer-to-peer model investments on a web site fraudulently claiming it was authorised and controlled by the FCA.
In December 2015 Peter Currie swapped the main points of a separate firm he had agreed to promote – Regal Pawnbrokers – for the main points of Collateral on the FCA register, the courtroom heard.
Over the next 18 months, the corporate was marketed as authorised to steer individuals to put money into loans on the Collateral platform.
In January 2018 the FCA notified Peter Currie that it had uncovered the register change and ordered that Collateral stop unauthorised enterprise.
Learn extra: Collateral injury: A timeline of the administration
After this, Collateral not solely continued to obtain investments however Peter and Andrew Currie additionally eliminated roughly £750,000 from the Collateral consumer accounts.
At across the similar time the Curries appointed, with out informing the FCA as required, an administrator and transferred an extra £88,000 from Collateral funds.
The FCA stated in a press release following the trial: “The integrity of the FCA Register is significant to client safety.
“The Curries masqueraded as an authorised agency to defraud customers by falsifying the official document and the jury has fairly rightly concluded their conduct was legal.
“The FCA has invested closely within the Register to strengthen controls and make it simpler for individuals to make use of, with extra info out there to customers.”
Each will probably be sentenced on July 7 2023.