A banker and his accomplice who tried to con high street banks into lending them £50m to buy expensive London homes have been sentenced to seven and 11 years in prison, respectively.
Matthew Hinds, 36, from Kent, and Ganendran Subramaniam, 34, from south London, were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by misrepresentation and making/supplying articles for use in fraud at Southwark Crown court last week.
The court heard how in 2007, unemployed Subramaniam offered to buy Astrobridge, a shell company, operating with a minimal turnover, but paid only the deposit on the deal.
Working in collusion with Hinds, a vice president at Nomura International Bank, they then attempted to obtain commercial mortgages worth tens of millions to buy expensive London properties.
Subramaniam told the banks that Astrobridge was applying for the mortgages and he was acting as an agent for its owner, who was away in the Caribbean.
The court heard that the owner was unaware how he and his company were being used as the basis of a massive fraud.
To support the application, Hinds produced false documents on Nomura-headed paper certifying that Astrobridge was being run by a millionaire commodity trader, and was operating with a $400m (£251m) turnover.
The fraudsters’ operation unravelled when Nomura received a letter from a victim who had received false bank guarantees from Hinds using the Japanese investment bank’s stationary.
After an internal investigation, the bank called in the City of London Police. Detectives uncovered how Hinds and Subramaniam had also tried to con companies in the United States, using Nomura documents as collateral in an attempt to secure large loans.
On one occasion, the fraudsters claimed they were keen to invest $127m in a company’s construction projects, only to disappear when they received an initial fee of $75,000.
Detective chief superintendent Steve Head, leader of the Economic Crime unity at the City of London Police, said: “These are two of the longest sentences for fraud that I recall during my many years with the police. The severity of the sentences given to the two defendants demonstrates just how seriously the courts are taking incidences of organised fraud.
“This sends a powerful message to fraudsters who seek to undermine our financial institutions from within – that the City of London Police will continue to prioritise bringing serious criminals, such as these, to justice.”
sam.mcclary@estatesgazette.com
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