Individuals involved in the London Capital & Finance scandal are liable to pay damages after the High Court found that the collapsed “minibond” provider operated as a Ponzi scheme that misrepresented itself in a “widespread, fundamental and systematic” way.
Administrators to the investment firm brought the civil case in an attempt to recover money from former directors and others connected with LCF, which had raised about ￡237mn from about 11,600 individual investors before it collapsed in 2019.
Former chief executive Michael “Andy” Thomson and Spencer Golding, a shareholder in LCF-linked companies, were found liable on Thursday for breaches of duties as directors. Three other individuals — Paul Careless, John Russell-Murphy and Robert Sedgwick — “dishonestly assisted” them, the court found.