A New York federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment slapping banking executives at Beaufort and Loyal Bank with more charges related to allegations, they engaged in a $50 million securities fraud and money laundering scheme.
The Federal Judge said their actions constitute a conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Less than a month after indicting London-based Beaufort Securities Ltd., Beaufort Management Securities Ltd., Loyal Bank, it’s offshore management company and several of their employees.
The grand jury levied two charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government against two Beaufort executives and two Loyal executives, claiming they’d obstructed the Internal Revenue Service by opening foreign bank accounts and brokerage accounts without collecting federally required data for the IRS.
In the superseding indictment, Beaufort Securities investment manager Panayiotis “Peter” Kyriacou, 26, and Beaufort Management general manager Arvinsingh “Vinesh” Canaye, 30, was hit with a new charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
The indictment pins an identical charge on Loyal Bank chief business officer Adrian Baron, 63, and chief executive officer Linda Bullock, 57, alleging that between May 2017 and February 2018, Baron told an undercover agent the bank would not submit a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act declaration to regulators “unless the paperwork indicated ‘obvious’ U.S. involvement,” while Bullock participated in setting up an account for the agent in the name of the agent’s choosing.
The indictment contained few new factual allegations from the Feb. 28 indictment returned in Brooklyn.
Authorities allege Beaufort opened brokerage accounts between 2014 and 2018 in the names of offshore shell companies for its clients while generating more than $50 million in proceeds for them through stock price manipulation.
The funds were then laundered through corporate accounts at Loyal Bank, the indictment alleges.
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act requires foreign financial institutions to identify U.S. customers and report information about the financial accounts of U.S. taxpayers, a provision violated by the actions of the four executives, the complaint said.
“Devising schemes to evade the reporting requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is a serious violation of the trust between registered foreign financial institutions and the Internal Revenue Service,” IRS.
Read Superseding Indictment