London: An Indian-origin man is among two others jailed for a total of 14 years for their role in an elaborate money laundering operation involving a so-called "rare earth" metals scam in the UK.
Tarun Jain had tried to deny his involvement by insisting that the money had been put into an old business account, but the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was able to prove his role in the fraud.
The 50-year-old was sentenced to six-and-a-half years of imprisonment by Kingston Crown Court on Friday for three counts of converting criminal property.
"These men tried to hide what they were doing through lies or multiple bank accounts, covering the fact they were actually laundering money that had been gained through an elaborate fraud," said Libby Clark, Senior CPS Prosecutor in the South East of England.
The money launderers collectively pocketed a share of the one million pounds of "rare earth" metal scam.
Their setup called Commodities Link gave customers the opportunity to invest in baskets of valuable elements branded as "rare earths" when in reality the metal they were selling was almost worthless.
The group of fraudsters charged between seven and two hundred times the actual value of the metal, and asked their victims to pay some of their investments into accounts owned by 56-year-old Ike Obiamiwe, 36-year-old Daniel Jordan as well as Jain.
Obiamiwe insisted that he was a consultant who gave advice to businesses and told investigators the money in his bank account had come from a trading company in Dubai.
However, the CPS was able to prove the 87,000 pounds in his account was part of the proceeds of the fraud.
Alongside some purchases on iTunes, further investigation found that Jordan had syphoned 80,000 pounds through his accounts.
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