Charanjit Sandhu appeared before the City of London Magistrates Court on Friday, charged with conspiracy to defraud and with offences under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the Fraud Act 2006.
His case has been sent to Southwark Crown Court. Five others were charged in connection with the same scam in June 2016, which reportedly lost 175 investors around £2.75m ($3.4m, €3.2m).
Michael Nascimento, Hugh Edwards, Stuart Rea, Ryan Parker (previously Ryan Sell), and Jeannine Lewis, all of whom live in London and the southeast, were charged with conspiracy to defraud.
Two of the five were also charged with perverting the course of justice contrary to the common law and one has been charged with money laundering offences contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Between July 2013 and March 2014 all six have been accused of promoting and/or selling shares in Atlantic Equity, formerly known as Berkeley Brookes, through a succession of four alleged ‘boiler room’ companies.
The companies were called First Capital Wealth, Bishops of Mayfair, Wallberg Dillion Reid, and Sterling Capital Corporation, all of which traded from Docklands, London.
A trial date has been set for the original five defendants on 4 September 2017. It is not clear if Sandhu will be present at that trial.
