Jeffrey Revelle-Reade
In January 2024 the SFO secured £220,000 from Jeffrey Revelle-Reade. Mr Revelle-Reade, an Australian national, was convicted in 2014, of defrauding investors of £70 million, in respect of which he was sentenced to nine years imprisonment. In June 2018, Mr Revelle-Reade was sentenced to a further four years imprisonment for failing to pay a £7.5 million confiscation order. The SFO has already recouped over £3 million from Mr Revelle-Reade. This latest payment was recouped from the sale of Mr Revelle-Reade's waterfront property in Sydney, Australia. It is further evidence that the SFO will continue to pursue the enforcement of confiscation orders long after a case has concluded and even when a default sentence has been served. The money will be used to compensate the victims of his fraud.
Jeffrey Cook
In March 2024, a jury convicted former MoD official Jeffrey Cook of misconduct in public office in connection with payments that he had received in exchange for commissioning work from offshore consultants for the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Mr Cook was charged alongside John Mason and Terence Dorothy as part of a wider investigation into corruption involving contracts awarded to GPT Special Project Management Ltd. Mr Mason and Mr Dorothy were acquitted of the charges they faced. Mr Cook was subsequently sentenced to 30 months in prison and a £123,000 confiscation order was made against him.
Emmanuel Okoyomon
In May the SFO seized over £36,000 from the bank account of Emmanuel Okoyomon, the former managing director of Nigerian Security Printing & Minting Plc the Nigerian state-owned banknote printing company. This action was taken in conjunction with an ongoing investigation. The SFO has asserted that Mr Okoyomon received the money from Peter Chapman, a former manager of polymer banknote manufacturer Securency PTY Ltd, who was convicted in May 2016 of making corrupt payments to a foreign official in Nigeria.
Virendra Rastogi aka Vareen Kumar or Veerain Kumarr
In October the SFO reported that it had seized a further £295,000 from Virendra Rastogi, now known as Vareen Kumar or Veerain Kumarr. Mr Rastogi was one of three former directors of RBG Resources plc who was prosecuted in 2008 for operating an international metal trading fraud that defrauded banks of almost $700 million between 1996 and 2002. Mr Rastogi was sentenced to nine and a half years imprisonment for his part in the fraud. The seizure of £295,000 was from two pension funds as part of an ongoing proceeds of crime investigation into Mr Rastogi's assets. The SFO has so far recovered nearly £6 million from Mr Rastogi. This includes the seizure of luxury watches and the sale of his Marylebone residence. This case demonstrates the SFO's sustained commitment to recovering the proceeds of crime from those convicted.