A businessman whose company claimed to help people who wanted to emigrate to the US is being investigated by the US Secret Service following allegations that he stole more than £10 million (US$14.7 million) from clients.
Derick Coles, who has homes in Mayfair, London and Florida, promised to set up secure bank accounts for Britons who wished to obtain green cards through a US government-approved scheme.
His alleged victims claim that, after they wired money to the supposedly secure account, it was stolen. The theft has left many people’s dreams of starting a new life in the US in tatters.
The claims have sparked an international search for evidence and victims of Coles’ alleged scams. Scotland Yard has been in touch with the US immigration and customs authorities and the FBI.
Coles, 62, who has been described as a convincing and personable grandfather figure, used his company, New Horizons Group, to woo dozens of customers at a series of meetings in hotels across the UK. His alleged victims were those who wished to move to the US under the EB-5 visa scheme, which demands that emigrants deposit money in a secure escrow account, but expected to have it returned to them at a future date. Escrow is a legal arrangement in which money is delivered to an agent to be held in trust.
John Joyce, a spokesman for the Secret Service office in Tampa, Florida, said that officials have launched a comprehensive investigation into the fraud allegations.
“The US Secret Service Tampa field office is investigating a number of complaints from British citizens who have apparently been victims of a fraud scheme in which they thought their large financial investment would ultimately allow them to obtain their green card giving them permanent residential status in the US,” Joyce said. “This office is actively pursuing this case and I am optimistic that those who are responsible will be vigorously prosecuted for any criminal activity.”
He called for alleged victims to come forward and contact the US authorities.
Stuart Layton, 44, a professional golfer, from Felsted, Essex, invested US$410,000 with Coles after they had met at a hotel in Dartford, Kent. He and his wife, Paula, wished to launch a new career in the US with their five children after cashing in endowment policies, stocks and shares, selling cars and borrowing money from their parents. They wired the money to Coles’ supposed escrow account last July and August. In November, however, they were told by a US official that the funds had been misappropriated.
“It has wiped us out, we have to start again,” Layton said. “We are absolutely distraught and feel the same as others that we have been duped into believing our dreams could come true.”
Their hopes of moving to Florida had become urgent, because their 11-year-old son Ross suffers from chronic arthritis and requires a warm climate.
Coles, who was born in Bournemouth, could not be contacted at his Mayfair mews home, on sale for £1.25 million.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
TRUDEAU IN TROUBLE: US president-elect Donald Trump reacted to Chrystia Freeland’s departure, saying: ‘Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday quit in a surprise move after disagreeing with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over US president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats. The resignation of Freeland, 56, who also stepped down as finance minister, marked the first open dissent against Trudeau from within his Cabinet, and could threaten his hold on power. Liberal leader Trudeau lags 20 points in polls behind his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, who has tried three times since September to topple the government and force a snap election. “It’s not been an easy day,” Trudeau said at a fundraiser Monday evening, but
RSS