The FCA have just announced the prosecution of eight individuals allegedly involved in land bank frauds concerning three separate companies , as a result of Operation Cotton.
Land banking, unregulated collective investment, schemes have come to the attention of both the FCA and various trading standards authorities up and down the country over the last few years. There have been a handful of high profile prosecutions since 2012.
Land banking, per se, is NOT illegal, and we have successfully defended many individuals and companies who have come to the attention of the authorities (both investigations and prosecutions) by showing that these individuals/companies ran legitimate businesses. The authorities have taken a negative "blanket view" of the industry as a whole, none the less.
Land banking has attracted the attentions of largely small investors (often "sophisticated investors") anxious to secure modest returns on often modest investments.
The land banking companies will buy land, and then sell off parcels of this land to investors, on the basis that the land is genuinely theirs to sell and that it is likely to increase in value.
The land maybe well located near a town, likely to receive planning permission to build upon or benefit from a fresh designation from green belt to brown belt. This is all against a background of this government repeatedly stating that it will encourage the loosening of planning rules and revoking green belt designations.
If you are facing such an investigation/prosecution, you will need to instruct established, successful fraud defence lawyers, who understand how the authorities prosecute these cases. You will need lawyers who also understand how these companies and the property market works.
At LNL we offer, a multi-disciplinary approach. We draw upon our successful expertise in: fraud defence; asset confiscation; money laundering; property and civil litigation.
We are currently advising individuals facing investigation /prosecution facing these matters and have successfully concluded a number of these investigations, avoiding the prosecution of our clients this year.
Contact Jeffrey Lewis; Siobhain Egan; Miles Herman or Keith Wood.
This blog is provided as a news item only. No connection between LNL and the parties involved is intended or implied
