Former BGC worker faces jail after breaching asset freeze order | USAEMALL.com

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A former UK tax adviser at broker dealer BGC Group accused of taking part in a £24mn scheme to defraud the US company is facing a prison sentence after he admitted breaching a freezing order on his assets.

A judge in London said the “custody threshold has been crossed” for contempt of court after Michael Viney dissipated funds that should have been used to repay the US company.

“I’m afraid I cannot give you any guarantees” about the sentence that would be imposed, Mr Justice Dexter Dias told Viney at the High Court on Monday. The judge said he would hand down his ruling at a later date.

BGC, which was led by billionaire Howard Lutnick before he became US commerce secretary this year, said it was the victim of a “massive” £24mn fraud perpetrated by Viney and another UK employee, Xavier Alcan.

The company accused Viney and Alcan of diverting payments that were intended to be between BGC and other legitimate sources, mainly HMRC, to bank accounts in numerous jurisdictions. The company reached a settlement with Alcan last year.

BGC accused Viney of using a “trusted position” within the company to conceal 32 separate fraudulent payments, including by doctoring emails.

Viney has previously admitted that he was liable to pay BGC. He was told to repay about £24mn under the terms of a court order in May 2022, according to a legal filing from BGC. On Monday, he acknowledged that he had breached the order.

The defendant told the court that he admitted three breaches, including through the sale of a property in Barcelona and dissipating a chunk of the proceeds.

BGC’s barrister, Bobby Friedman, said Viney’s conduct was “just too serious” to warrant a suspended sentence, which would send “far too weak a message” about the severity of the breaches. “There’s been a consistent pattern of evading court orders,” Friedman said.

Friedman told the court that Viney had taken part in a scheme to “knowingly” dissipate assets with a “high degree of planning”.

Proceeds from the €253,800 Barcelona property sale were paid into previously undisclosed bank accounts and while some of the money had been recovered, a large chunk had not been, Friedman said.

Ian Whitehurst, representing Viney, said there was no dispute about the facts of the case, but he called for the judge to consider a suspended sentence.

Whitehurst said Viney had co-operated with “large aspects” of the court order and about £11mn or £12mn would ultimately be realised from him.

He said Viney, who looked pensive throughout much of the hearing on Monday, had been under “considerable stress and strain” that had affected his judgment and led him to “actions of rank stupidity and also naivety”.

Whitehurst called on the judge to consider the impact of the sentence on his family, adding that Viney had previously been of good character.