A self-styled wealth management expert who targeted elderly people with promises of protecting their homes and savings has admitted stealing £11.5 million from clients in a major fraud.
The Fraud Scheme
Steven Long, 59, is awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud by abuse of trust relating to investments made by 115 victims between 2008 and 2018. Long, who ran the Ipswich-based Universal Wealth group of companies, marketed trust funds as a way for clients to safeguard their assets and pass them on to loved ones. However, police said many victims lost life savings, retirement funds and money intended for future care. An earlier civil case heard that customers lost up to £25 million through the scheme.
Long used marketing leaflets warning people about financial risks including care home fees and inheritance issues, encouraging them to place homes and savings into trusts managed by his company.
Insider Testimony
According to former employee Del DelaRonde, who later provided evidence to investigators, Long cultivated an image of success with luxury watches, expensive cars and polished presentations designed to win clients’ trust. Mr DelaRonde, 67, was hired as interim chief financial officer in late 2017 after Universal Wealth began experiencing financial difficulties. He said he initially believed the company had suffered from poor investments rather than criminal wrongdoing.
However, he soon found unpaid staff, mounting debts and clients struggling to access their money. He described company accounts as being in disarray and said Long repeatedly failed to provide clear answers about the whereabouts of clients’ funds. Mr DelaRonde said angry customers frequently arrived at the company’s offices demanding explanations for missing investments.
Later, during preparations for a High Court hearing brought by families seeking answers about missing funds, Long allegedly admitted that money had been transferred through a series of overseas accounts, with portions disappearing at each stage. Mr DelaRonde and legal advisers subsequently resigned and later provided information to police despite confidentiality agreements.
Legal Consequences
In 2018, Long was jailed for eight months after being found in contempt of court for failing to disclose information that could have helped trace missing funds. A criminal investigation followed, culminating in Long’s guilty pleas earlier this year. He has been remanded in custody since March and is due to be sentenced next month.
Detective Constable Lisa Hunt, from the serious economic crime team for eastern England, said: “Steven Long presented himself as the consummate professional, seemingly backed by accreditation for practitioners in the trust and estate sector. He targeted victims who placed their full trust in him – many of them elderly, vulnerable, or planning carefully for their families’ futures. Long callously exploited that trust for his own gain, leaving victims and their loved ones facing devastating financial and emotional consequences.”
Police said funds entrusted to Long were used to pay for “extravagant personal expenses” for himself and those closest to him, with some individual victims losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.
