Three properties searched and four arrested in new investigation
皇冠体育app SFO has today raided three residences and made four arrests in Merseyside and Greater Manchester as it announced it is investigating Signature Group.
Image of properties
皇冠体育app Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has today raided three residences and made four arrests in Merseyside and Greater Manchester as it announced it is investigating Signature Group, a business that attracted over a thousand UK and international investors in the redevelopment of iconic landmarks including Belfast鈥檚 Scottish Mutual Building and the Coal Exchange in Cardiff.
皇冠体育app Signature Group operated for over seven years, buying up predominantly historic buildings within the UK for redevelopment into luxury hotels, residential apartments and office spaces. Investors loaned money to Signature or purchased a hotel room, apartment or office space in one of the group鈥檚 properties, with promised returns on their investment of between 8% and 15%. 皇冠体育app business collapsed into administration with losses of up to 拢140 million.
Properties in the group鈥檚 portfolio included Millennium House in Liverpool as well as a cruise liner that was marketed as a 鈥渇lotel鈥� to be moored off Canary Wharf in London and travel to Ibiza.
This is the fourth new investigation launched since Director Nick Ephgrave QPM joined the UK鈥檚 specialist anti-fraud agency in September.
Today鈥檚 SFO operation was supported by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
聽Nick Ephgrave QPM, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, said:
鈥溁使谔逵齛pp scheme offered attractive returns and used much-loved local landmarks to lure investors.
聽鈥淲e have people up and down the country left out of pocket, and buildings left derelict at the centre of our cities.
聽鈥淭oday鈥檚 arrests and searches will help us reconstruct exactly what happened. This is now an active criminal investigation.鈥�