A widower told a court he felt like a 'complete failure' after losing his late wife's savings in an £11.5 million Ponzi scheme that targeted retired people. David Cunningham lost all £140,000 of his wife Christine's savings after entrusting them to fraudster Steven Long.
Scheme Targeted Retirees and Their Inheritance
Southwark Crown Court heard that Steven Long, 59, and Raymond Simpson, 79, ran a Ponzi scheme through Long's wealth management business, Universal, which collapsed in 2018. The fraudsters marketed schemes to homeowners near or at retirement age, offering to manage and protect trust funds for inheritance planning. Prosecutors said the victims were 'overwhelmingly not wealthy people' but 'careful, responsible people who had worked tirelessly hard over years to build up, often modest but extremely significant, capital or assets.'
Long, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, admitted two counts of fraud between July 31 2008 and April 23 2018, and between January 1 2014 and April 23 2018. Simpson, understood to be in Portugal, was convicted in his absence of two counts of fraud. Both were sentenced on Friday.
'I Have Completely Failed My Wife and Children'
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Cunningham said Long 'sensed an easy prey' when the widower explained issues he was having with the Co-Op about managing his wife's estate. Cunningham added: 'I feel ashamed, guilty about my incompetence, suspicious of people, unhappy, tense, saddened, nervous about making most decisions. I have completely failed my wife and children, which I cannot undo.'
The court heard that Long 'robbed' Cunningham's children 'of their mother's legacy.' Cunningham said he still wakes up at night 'feeling like a complete failure' and that the guilt 'shall never end.' He revealed he had planned to request sleeping tablets from his doctor with suicidal intent, but his daughter intervened.
£11.5 Million Lost, 115 Direct Victims
Prosecutor Charlene Sumnall said Long was ultimately responsible for the £11,574,814 of client money lost by Universal. Simpson was charged with defrauding £785,380 through investments and £615,000 by buying land in Spain. Sumnall said there are 115 'direct victims' but 'given that this money represented the inheritance – actual or potential – of some clients and that money is now gone, there are a vast number of indirect victims.'
'The fact that these were individuals who were older, near or at retirement age, means the Crown say that they were particularly vulnerable,' she added. 'Put crudely, they do not have enough time left to earn back that which has been defrauded from them.'
Fraudsters' Lavish Lifestyle Funded by Victims
The court heard Long 'lived and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle,' renting expensive properties and boasting about one that belonged to a Premiership footballer. He used client money to pay for a holiday to Mexico with his then-wife and a timeshare property there. His wife bought a Land Rover and had five annual tax bills paid with fraudulent funds. Long used 'buffer' bank accounts to disguise the origins of funds from his wife.
Simpson made 'clearly inappropriate' investments with clients' money for personal gain and knowingly promoted the phoney schemes. Sumnall said Simpson was 'the primary mover in the deals' and that 'the contacts were all his; he specialised in these types of 'Loch Ness monster' schemes.'
