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Financial watchdog tells court of potentially huge fraud

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date13 April 2024
Publication titleEvening Chronicle
According to High Court documents, the Financial Conduct Authority alleges that WealthTek founder John Dance received and diverted tens of millions of pounds of client money to his own personal bank account and that he "dishonestly concealed" that his firm had been holding client money when it was not authorised to do so

The papers also show the watchdog alleges Mr Dance, who was at the helm of the firm which also traded as Vertem Asset Management and Malloch Melville, had failed to declare his bankruptcy six years ago.

The claims come as a High Court judge recently granted the FCA a pause in civil action against WealthTek and Mr Dance in order to focus on suspected criminal offences.

The Tyneside firm was closed down last April and placed in a special administration amid regulatory breaches and concerns about fraud and money laundering. A shortfall of £80m in client money and assets was then discovered.

Now, witness statements from an FCA manager include allegations that the scale and extent of Mr Dance's suspected misconduct had become more serious as the regulator's investigation progressed since last April.

Statements from the FCA's Anthony Williams say Mr Dance is alleged to have funnelled about £49m of client money to his personal bank account and other companies with which he is associated. Mr Williams' statement also included reference to "the discovery of earlier misconduct, with suspicious flows of client money and assets of about £21m from WealthTek to Mr Dance in the period between 2014 and 2020".

A statement submitted by

Christopher Hollyoak, also of the FCA, alleges Mr Dance used apparently forged documents to dupe CACEIS Bank into thinking WealthTek had permissions to hold client money, when it did not.

He also said Mr Dance had...

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