Convicted company director Gautam Majumdar, who is currently serving a 7 ½ year sentence for his part in the RBG resources multi-million-pound fraud, has been stripped of his assets and ordered to pay £572,815.73 in compensation to victims.
HHJ Judge Wadsworth QC made the order today at the Southwark Crown Court following an investigation and prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office. The Judge imposed a three and a half year sentence to be served if Majumdar fails to pay the order by 28 May 2010.
SFO Director Richard Alderman said, "Compensation for victims has to be at the core of what we do and it is gratifying to see the court make this order today."
An outline of the RBG Resources case
RBG Resources plc (also known as Allied Deals plc) was a London based company which bought and sold consignments of metals from around the world. In 2000 RBG's declared turnover was over one billion US dollars. It had "hub" operations in India, Dubai and Hong Kong and gave the impression of being a very successful business, however, in 2002 it went into liquidation with debts of US$ 420 million.
The SFO investigation established that although RBG conducted some legitimate trading, the vast majority of its turnover was phantom business created in order to fool banks into lending hundreds of millions of dollars which was never repaid.
The false trades were closely controlled by Majumdar and his co-defendants, Virendra Rastogi and Anand Jain. When sentencing Majumdar on June 2008 the Judge said that he had played a very large and knowing part in the deception of the banks and accountants and that he had been in a unique position to recognize the fraud and stop it but instead had decided to support and profit from it.
Confiscation proceedings against Rastogi remain ongoing, next hearing date listed at Southwark Crown Court on the 18 March 2010. Rastogi and Jain sentenced in June 2008 are currently serving sentences of 9 ½ and 8 ½ years respectively
