Regulatory Watch News

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  FCA secures confiscation order against Ponzi scheme fraudster

  Financial Conduct Authority

  June 8, 2026

  Mr Pugh, 36, is serving a 7 years and 6 months prison sentence for defrauding investors out of £1.3m. Run from his bedroom in Devon, Pugh used Facebook adverts to target investors and promised them wholly unrealistic returns, claiming these would be generated by trading across various markets. Only 19% of the funds collected from investors were traded and the scheme was, in effect, a Ponzi scheme, which was run with another individual. At a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 5 June 2026, Mr Pugh was ordered to pay £452,286.80. This represents the total value of the assets the court found available for recovery. The funds will be used to compensate the victims of his crimes.

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  Italy: EPPO seizes assets in investigation into subsidy fraud involving RRF funds for SMEs

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  June 8, 2026

  (Luxembourg, 8 June 2026) – At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Naples (Italy), last week the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) conducted searches and seized assets at the residence of five suspects in Naples, Caserta and the surrounding province, as part of an investigation into possible subsidy fraud involving RRF funds for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME).   Assets to the value of €305 500 were ordered to be seized by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations in Santa Maria Capua Vetere (Caserta), including cars, real estate, and funds held in the suspects’ bank accounts.

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  Crime family who used corrupt airline check-in attendant to help smuggle vast amounts of drugs cash to the UAE are convicted

  National Crime Agency

  June 8, 2026

  A criminal family and their associates smuggled almost £30 million of cash out of the UK to the United Arab Emirates hidden in suitcases. A National Crime Agency investigation showed that the group worked with a British Dubai-based organiser to smuggle the money via Dubai-bound Emirates flights leaving from Manchester, Birmingham and Brussels airports between December 2017 and November 2019. Couriers smuggled the criminal cash in up to five suitcases at a time, sometimes helped by corrupt Emirates check-in attendant Emma Rauf, who worked at Manchester Airport.