The Financial Conduct Authority has secured confiscation orders of £305,284 against a trio of convicted investment fraudsters.

Raheel Mirza, Cameron Vickers and Opeyemi Solaja will have to return the money to investors at the earliest opportunity or face jail.

Their scam took roughly £1.2m from around 120 UK investors.

The confiscation orders amount to all the trio’s remaining assets.

Payment of compensation to the victims will be made after the defendants have made payments towards their confiscation order to the court.

The confiscation proceedings for Reuben Akpojaro have been adjourned to a later date.

Between June 2016 and January 2020, the defendants cold called people to convince them to invest in a shell company. They then claimed to trade their clients' money in binary options (a type of fixed odds financial betting) when the money was actually used to bankroll their lifestyles.

In 2023, they were convicted and sentenced to a combined 24.5 years for investment fraud.

Steve Smart, executive director, enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “We are committed to fighting financial crime, including denying criminals their ill-gotten gains. We’ve already successfully prosecuted these individuals for their part in a scam that conned 120 people out of their money. We’re now seeking to recover as much as we can for victims.” 

Raheel Mirza was further convicted of perverting the course of justice and Reuben Akpojaro, 40, was convicted for offering binary option investments without FCA authorisation.

Mr Akpojaro was acquitted of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.

Binary options became FCA regulated on 3 January 2018. Binary options are a high-risk ‘all-or-nothing' type of investment where 80% of investors lose their money. Traders will attempt to predict whether an event will happen or not and if they win, they will see a return, but if they are wrong, they will lose all their investment.

Binary options have been banned for retail use since July 2018.