A man falsely claiming to have financial ties to the Vatican and Spanish aristocracy was jailed yesterday for 14 years for defrauding a company out of £86 million.
Luis Nobre, 49, posed as a millionaire city trader and persuaded Dutch shipping company Allseas Group Ltd to hand over money, which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle in London.
The man from Wembley allegedly claimed to have access to a secret trading platform connected to the Vatican via the Spanish royal family.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police said Nobre kept the money with a London legal firm and made a number of withdrawals from the account until it was frozen by police.
Nobre was arrested on 3 December 2011 where he was found to have fake bank documents on him.
Investigators from the Met’s Criminal Finance Team believes £2.4 million was laundered through accounts in Switzerland, Singapore and Cyprus, with the aid of a co-accused man who died before the trial. Almost £70 million has been returned to Allseas Group.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Riordan of the Met’s anti-money laundering team, said: "Nobre posed as a man of great wealth in order to dupe others into giving him exceptional amounts of money for bogus investment schemes. In reality his lifestyle was paid for by defrauding others.
"Today’s significant sentence puts Nobre behind bars where he can reflect upon his actions."
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