SFO confiscates assets of former City trader Nicholas Levene

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today announces that it has confiscated the realisable assets of Nicholas Levene, the former City stockbroker from Hertfordshire, who was found guilty of fraud in 2012.

When Levene was handed a confiscation order in March 2013, due to bankruptcy proceedings, his available realisable assets totalled £1. Today, the SFO confiscated approximately £118,000 of Levene’s assets.

In February 2019, the SFO obtained a restraint order on Levene’s self-invested personal pension, to which he would gain access on his 55th birthday. Today, at Southwark Crown Court, His Honour Judge Martin Beddoe ruled that Mr Levene’s available pension would be confiscated by the SFO and used to compensate victims.

Following a Serious Fraud Office investigation, Levene pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud, one count of false accounting and one count of obtaining money transfer by deception in September 2012. He was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment and handed a confiscation order for more than £32 million of criminal benefit.

In pleading guilty Mr Levene admitted that between April 2005 and October 2009 he dishonestly accepted monies from investors. Levene told investors he had bought shares on their behalf when instead funds were diverted to his own personal, business or gambling accounts. To maintain the fraud investors were often provided with false “profits” – in fact, other people’s money. This deceived investors into believing that he was a successful trader.

In total, between January 1, 2005 and October 31, 2009 Levene obtained over £250 million pounds from investors.

The fraud collapsed in 2009 following civil court action by a number of investors to recover their monies. Levene was subsequently made the subject of a bankruptcy order on October 7, 2009.