HMRC requires Money-launderer to pay back £1m or stay behind the bars for seven more years

Sandeep Gill from Buckinghamshire was found guilty of laundering money through using services of an online banking channel that was used also used by a number of criminals for transferring funds into their bank accounts. Now the man from Buckinghamshire should either pay back sum of £1,018,085 within approximately 90 days (3 months) or be ready to spend next seven years of his life in prison but even then he will remain liable to pay back the said amount. Gill transferred money illegally into his Swiss accounts via a series of bank accounts in Jersey, Portugal, Cyprus, and the Cape Verde Islands.

Gill used the online services of UMBS for laundering money into his Swiss bank accounts. Its associate company named UMBS Online was convicted in the year 2011 on charges of being used for illegal trading purposes as well as being used by criminal for transferring money between various bank accounts. A sum of £6.5m was recovered from UMBS Online at the time when they were convicted in the year 2011.

Gill forged bank statements and other financial documents in order to legalize the financial transactions of account holders. Gill used the money to fund a lavish life style which included foreign holidays, buying property and Rolex watches. The investigation team of HMRC also discovered £82,000 from a safety deposit box and sum of £15,850 was found in the safe kept at his home.

Gill was sentenced to jail for a period of six years in June of 2016 as a direct result of an investigation carried out by HMRC. At a confiscation hearing held this month, at the Isle worth Crown Court, it was concluded that Gill had been benefitted by more than £6.3m from money laundering and other criminal conduct. However, it is found that his realizable assets currently are only worth slightly over £1m. HMRC holds the right to pursue future wealth of Sandeep Gill.

Nicol Sheppard, assistant director fraud investigation service, HMRC, said that their work does not stop or gets completed with the imprisonment of the criminal. It does not matter that how complicated and difficult the investigation relating to money laundering is or how many banking channels and accounts are used, we will obstruct such crimes and recover the money to be used to fund the public services.