Ex-bankers sentenced to jail for defrauding Libyan sovereign wealth fund

Two former bankers have been sentenced to jail for a total of 11 years for their role in a multimillion pound fraud in which a Libyan sovereign wealth fund was defrauded after hidden fees were paid to offshore companies.

Frederic Marino, 56, a fund manager and former star trader at JPMorgan, was on Monday sentenced to seven years and six months in prison after he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position last December by a jury at Southwark Crown Court.

Yoshika Ohmura, 47, a former Julius Baer banker, who was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position of trust at the same trial, was given a prison sentence of three years and six months.

Judge Tony Baumgartner, who heard both men had now absconded from the UK, sentenced the two in their absence and issued warrants for their arrest.

Aurelien Bessot, 47, a former financier with Rabobank, who attended court on Monday, had pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position of trust in 2020. He was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment suspended for two years.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Marino, who did not attend last year’s trial and is now living in Paris, and Bessot were co-directors of a company called FM Capital Partners, which was set up in 2009.

This was responsible for investing £822mn funds of the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio, a sovereign wealth fund set up shortly before the Arab spring and the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

However, instead of optimising the investments, Marino and Bessot, with the help of Swiss banker Ohmura, placed investments to maximise their own rewards.

They collected undeclared fees for investments made on behalf of the Libyan wealth fund, to the detriment of the fund between 2009 and 2014. The money from these fraudulent actions was then laundered through a series of offshore shell companies.

Judge Baumgartner said Marino had played a “leading role” in the fraud and was a “greedy, corrupt and manipulative man” who would have “continued offending” had he not been caught out”.

Marino had devised a scheme to unlawfully line his own pockets thinking he could get away with it and his actions had deprived the Libyan people, the judge said.

Bessot was given a suspended sentence after the court heard that he had assisted prosecutors and was “deeply remorseful” and had paid back $2.8mn — more than the money he owed.

Judge Baumgartner said that London remained a leading financial centre and such offending brought its reputation “into disrepute”.

He also criticised the use of offshore vehicles in the fraud, which he said were “an impenetrable cloak to obtain illegitimate advantage” and added that “use of these has to stop”.

Prosecutors said after Monday’s hearing that the total losses to the fund caused by the men were upwards of $10mn plus €1.36mn. Marino’s actions caused losses to the fund of $8.45mn, the court heard.

The criminal sentencing comes five years after FM Capital Partners won a separate civil lawsuit in the High Court against Marino and Ohmura.