Ex footballer Richard Rufus jailed for currency fraud

A former Premier League footballer who scammed his friends out of £8m to carry on his luxury lifestyle after he retired was jailed for seven a half years today (Thurs).

Ex-Charlton Athletic defender Richard Rufus, who turned 48 today, had dupes flocking to invest in the foreign exchange market by promising them incredible yields in a pyramid scheme

Rufus, who won six caps for the England under-21s, claimed ‘football friends’ such as former England and Man Utd defender Rio Ferdinand had invested with him.

He drove a Bentley and lived on an exclusive private estate on the money he was swindling, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Posing as a successful foreign exchange trader, Rufus claimed he had been headhunted by some of Britain’s largest financial organisations, including Morgan Stanley and Coutts.

But he was so incompetent he invested £5m for his church as a ‘blessing’ and lost them £3.5m.

Rufus insisted he was doing friends and family a ‘favour’ by handling their cash.

He apologised for losing their money and said: ‘I am absolutely remorseful for my family and friends. It all started to help them to make money and in the early 2000s that is what we did.

‘We carried it on to the mid-2000s and I always had a good intention. I have lost absolutely everything and I don’t want people to feel sorry for me.

‘Even though it has made me bankrupt, it is still my intention to make amends in relation to what happened. Especially watching my family and friends’ step into this witness box this past week.’

Rufus’ home was repossessed in 2012 and he was declared bankrupt in October 2013.

He denied but was convicted by a jury of three counts of fraud, one count of possessing criminal property and one count of carrying on a regulated activity when not authorised.

One of the fraud charges related to former Chelsea and Villa defender Paul Elliott.

Lucy Organ, prosecuting, had said ‘there was a high impact on some of the victims in this case, life savings have gone and houses have been sold’ as she read impact statements to the court.

James Edwards said he and his wife had hoped were trying to buy a new house when they were fleeced by Rufus.

Ms Organ said: ‘Their daughter has had to be removed from the school…. their lives have been irreversibly shattered; the option of retirement has been taken away from him as Mr Edwards now has to work until he dies in order to keep a house over their heads.’

Mr Edwards said Rufus has ‘ruined his life and the lives of his children and rocked his faith in other human beings.’

Roninir Deb said Rufus has ‘financially crippled him, causing him physical and emotional problems including suicidal thoughts.’

Reading from Mr Deb’s statement the prosecutor said: ‘He’s gone from a happy-go-lucky person to a damaged one. He had to remove their family from their home and wishes he never met Richard Rufus.’

Ian Clarke said the former Charlton player’s crimes have damaged his family life and relationship with his sister.

‘He was relying on the promise of a monthly income for his everyday living expenses which resulted in financial hardship,’ said Ms Organ.

‘He was chased by mortgage and credit card companies for years. [He even] had to tell his children not to open the door in case it was the bailiffs.’

In his statement Mr Clarke said he has suffered ‘death by a thousand lies’

Another victim, Vincent Naire, said Rufus has ‘demonstrated no empathy’ to his victims.

Jailing Rufus for seven and a half years Judge Dafna Spiro told him: ‘The victims of this fraud are haunted by your actions.

‘The people who invested did so in good faith, they believed your spiel because they thought you were the real deal.

‘You were robbing Peter to pay Paul.

‘You were living a lie at the expense of others.’

The fraudster showed no emotion as he was led from the dock.

Rufus was offered an apprenticeship at Charlton at the age of 16 and secured a place in the first team two years later.

He helped the Addicks win promotion to the Premier League in 1998 via the Wembley play-off final when he scored his first ever senior goal against Sunderland.

After making 288 appearances for Charlton and scoring 12 goals he retired from football in 2004 after unsuccessful knee surgery and launched a career in the financial sector.

Rufus had all the trappings of wealth, living in a big five-bedroom house in Purley, south London, driving a luxury cars and wearing Rolex watches.

According to his friends he kept up the footballer’s lifestyle, long after his retirement, but he was living a lie.

‘He scammed friends, family and associates out of millions of pounds by pretending he was able to offer a low-risk investment in the foreign exchange market,’ said Lucy Organ, prosecuting.

‘He claimed he had significant success with his strategy in the past.

‘He claimed he could, and did, get massive profits of five per a month which equates to 60 per cent a year.

‘He claimed that investor’s original investments or capital was said and would and could be returned to them within 14 days of them asking.

‘The investments were in fact fraught with risk. Rather than returning the profits they were promised, they lost a great deal of money.

‘Mr Rufus took over £15 million in total. He traded some of it, as I have said, losing vast amounts, but that wasn’t the end of the fraud.

‘Of that money, about £2 million he never even transferred to foreign exchange trading accounts. He used this money partly to prop up the losses that his scams were making.

‘Making payments back to other investors to continue the pretence that they were making a good investment, a so-called “pyramid scheme” and partly simply for his own benefit, treating the money he received from investors as his own.’

Of the £15 million paid by investors to his personal account for trading, only £7 million went into his trading account.

At least £2 million was kept in his personal account with some investments transferred to family members.

Eventually Rufus had his accounts frozen by the Financial Services Agency on 11 February 2011.

‘Even when he stopped trading, he continued to take money from investors who he duped,’ the prosecutor said.

‘That money too was never invested and never went near a trading account. He used this money to either further the fraud by paying investor’s fake profits or simply as his own money.

‘Whilst paying investors fake profits, paying back so called capital, he simply paid his own bills with that money.’

Rufus joined the Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) as a Board trustee in 2005.

The church was persuaded to invest £5.1m and only but received £1.4m back.

Detailing Rufus’s lavish spending the prosecutor said: ‘He had a mortgage with the Bank of Scotland that cost him approximately £9,000 per month.

‘A third of his personal expenditure was on mortgages and loans, an amount over five years of nearly £700,000, with an average of over £11,000 per month.

‘He also spent £200,0000 on motoring costs with over £70,000 to Mercedes Benz Finance and payments of over £45,000 to Mercedes Croydon and over £46,000 to Land Rover.

‘He transferred £222,468 to his wife, Simone Rufus and £158,513.86 to a joint account held with his wife.’

Giving evidence Mr Elliott, 58, said he and Rufus both suffered career ending knee injuries and he agreed to invest in his friend.

He told the court: ‘He said he had been trading for friends and family. He explained the methodology was that he had created this ‘IP’, Intellectual Property.

‘He created his own design, his own style, his own intellectual property that enabled him to be very very successful.

‘He said he made colossal sums of money for his church and friends and family…it was millions.

‘He said what was very important for him was his legacy. He said he wanted to create a legacy.

‘The make-up of his church was predominantly black and some from low socio-economic background, so he wanted to create a legacy. He wanted to be a wealth creator to make them comfortable.

‘He actually said that he was being sourced by a number of global corporate entities such as Barclays and Coutts.

‘He said he was so successful that these companies wanted to headhunt him and he resisted that engagement because he wanted to do right by his parishioners, his friends and family, and the church.’

Rufus also claimed to be investing money for other footballers but Mr Elliott was notified that the FCA had frozen Rufus’s accounts in 2011.

He was declared bankrupt in October 2013 after a proposed Individual Voluntary Arrangement failed.

Ms Organ added: ‘He continually promised people that he would make them very high returns on their investments. He promised that their capital would and was safe. He said capital could be returned to them within 14 days.

‘He continued the lies by either saying there was profit being made by their investments and that it was being “re-invested” and so the amounts held by the investors was increasing, or by actually making profit payments to them.

‘This was all fraudulent since there was no profit and in fact the capital from the investors was not safe and couldn’t be returned by Richard Rufus to them because he was either using it to support the pyramid scheme and make so-called “profit” payments or he used it for his own ends.’

Rufus, of Anerley Hill, Crystal Palace, south London, denied three counts of fraud by false representation, one count of possessing criminal property and one count of carrying out a regulated activity when not authorised, between May 2007 and April 2012.

Judge Dafna Spiro told Rufus: ‘You have turned 48 today. You are of previously good character.

‘You were a professional footballer.

‘Your football career was cut short by a knee injury in 2003 or 2004.

‘By then you had the lifestyle of a high earning footballer.’

Judge Spiro said he wanted to maintain this lifestyle, including living in a gated community and luxury cars including a Bentley, Range Rover and Mercedes.

‘You became interested in property.

‘You knew enough to talk the talk.

‘You invested in trading yourself and spent time in the States.

‘Although you desperately wanted to establish yourself as a successful trader, you were only ever an ameteur. Yet you set out to give the impression that you were a professional.

‘You made a limited number of successful trades in 2007.

‘The fact is you were not just playing with your own money.

‘You squandered the funds of many innocent victims.

‘The regulations are there for a reason’

‘Those who invested invested in good faith.

‘You were charming. You said you were doing it purely for the good of others, that you wanted to help those less fortunate than yourself.’

Judge Spiro said that in 2008 Rufus started losing money, but continued trading.

‘You lost vast sums but instead of cutting your losses or those of the investors, you continued to pour in more and more, therefore losing more and more.

‘You were only able to gamble in this way by hiding the true picture and selling a lie.’

‘You pretended you were making vast profits.

‘You were living a lie at the expense of others.

‘You had a trial and sought to deny that you were in any way dishonest.

‘You could not help but recognise when you listened to your friends or former friends that you have cause real pain to them.

‘You were given every opportunity to say sorry and make amends.’

Judge Spiro acknowledged Rufus’ work with charity.

‘You are a Christian and have done good work in the community.

‘You too, like your victims, are haunted by your offence. The difference is that you are the author of your misfortune and theirs.’

Rufus showed no trace of emotion as he was jailed for seven and a half years. He will serve half the sentence before he is released on licence.

Simon Spence, KC, defending, earlier told the court: ‘I’m proposing to say very little about the defendant’s current personal circumstances.

‘There was a lengthy investigation by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and of course a criminal investigation and that has effectively put Mr Rufus’ life on hold

‘His house has been possessed and disposed of; he now lives in a rented property with his family.

‘He has 3 children and a wife who are dependent upon him and that of course is going to impact on them as he starts to serve the inevitable prison sentence your honour must pose.

‘For some who are not in the public eye who fall from grace, it is possible to rehabilitate oneself and regain people’s trust in him.

‘For those in the public eye it will always be there in the press and so on.

‘Mr Rufus’ fall from grace is likely to be permanent.

‘He is somebody who following his forced retirement from football spent a lot of time devoted to charity work, not for any cynical reason but that’s what he wanted to do and that is something he will no longer be able to do.

‘As far as he is able, Mr Rufus is seeking to continue helping others through the church he is clearly somebody in any aspect of his life a good man.

‘He is not a career fraudster and your honour can have some confidence that he is someone who will try the best he can to put himself back on his feet and live a law abiding life

‘He is clearly a man of many talents.

‘And I do say on his behalf that this is perhaps the one and only occasion he is likely to find himself before the criminal court.’

Roger Makanjuola of the CPS said: ‘Rufus acted in a selfish manner without any concern for his victims. He took advantage of his status as a professional athlete, a respected church member and he used the goodwill of his family and friends to scam them and associates out of millions of pounds by falsely claiming he was able to offer a low-risk investment in the Foreign Exchange Market.

‘He claimed that he had been successful with his investment strategies previously, but the investments were fraught with risk and he lost his victims’ much needed money to the amount of £15million.

‘While making these huge losses he put approximately £2million into his personal accounts, allegedly for the purposes of investment but this was never transferred over to his trading account.

‘We now commence confiscation proceedings to seek to recover his ill-gotten gains’.