UK Bans Trio Behind £35.5m Scheme Designed to Bypass Visa Rules
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has decided to ban 3 former senior figures at Dolfin Financial (UK) Limited (Dolfin) after finding that they ran a scheme that helped clients bypass UK visa rules.
Former chief executive Denisz Nagy has been fined £324,800 and former finance director Sanjay Maraj £122,000 for their roles in the scheme.
Both have been banned from working in financial services, FCA said in a statement. The FCA has also decided to ban Dolfin co-founder Roman Joukovski from working in financial services.
Between 2016 and 2019, most clients using the scheme paid a £400,000 fee instead of investing £2m of their own money in UK companies, as required under the Home Office investor visa rules. The FCA found the scheme was deliberately designed to create the false impression that the visa requirements had been met.
The scheme enabled at least 99 individuals to obtain investor visas and generated at least £35.5m in fees for Dolfin-connected businesses and the immigration agents that introduced clients.
The FCA found that Mr Nagy and Mr Joukovski played leading roles in creating and operating the scheme, while Mr Maraj was responsible for the financial aspects once it was set up. Mr Nagy and Mr Maraj also deliberately concealed its true nature from the FCA and the Home Office.
The FCA found that Mr Joukovski deliberately concealed from the regulator both his involvement with Dolfin and his role in the scheme. It also found that Mr Joukovski acted as a shadow director of Dolfin without FCA approval and was a controller of the firm without informing the regulator.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: ‘Integrity is not optional in financial services.
“These individuals ran a scheme designed to get around the UK’s investor visa rules, undermining their purpose of attracting genuine investment into the UK. They then sought to hide how it operated. We will continue to act against those who lack integrity and undermine trust in UK financial services.’ UK FCA Sets Out Rules for Fund Tokenisation Innovation
