Leicester man jailed for multi-million pound money laundering

AN INDIAN-ORIGIN man convicted of being involved in a multi-million-pound money laundering operation has been jailed for eight years on Thursday (28).

The Leicester resident was also disqualified from being a company director for eight years.

Chauhan Vijay Yogendrasinh, 55, was the director of Belgrave-based Rushi Investments Limited - a company which appeared to be a legitimate money transfer service.

However, the company was actually found to be a money-laundering operation transferring criminal money overseas.

The work carried out by the East Midlands Special Operations Unit’s Regional Asset Recovery Team found that more than £11 million had gone through the business which was ran from Canon Street in Leicester.

While it is accepted some of the money was transferred legally, millions of pounds was found to have been transferred illegally through different bank accounts and companies to be sent abroad.

It is not known what criminal enterprise this money came from.

The police work, which included uncovering huge amounts of cash and numerous false documents, proved that money laundering had been committed.

Police work included uncovering large amounts of cash.

Yogendrasinh had denied his involvement but following a seven-week trial at Leicester Crown Court, he was found guilty last month of conspiracy to transfer criminal property between 2011 and 2016.

Sentencing him, Judge Robert Brown said: "You were born in Gujarat, India, and educated to degree level; you have a science degree.

"You speak five languages and I'm satisfied you're an intelligent man."

He said that the defendant arrived in the UK in 2001 and was granted political asylum in 2010.

Police investigative work into Yogendrasinh showed Rushi Investments had used legitimate money service bureaus, misleading the companies so that they would transfer the money abroad.

This was done through false lists of people which were created to try and explain where the large amounts of money being deposited had come from.

Some invoices found in relation to the transactions made overseas were also found to be false.

Further enquiries to prove the crime showed large amounts of cash had passed through the personal bank accounts of Yogendrasinh, which didn’t match up to what had been declared to HMRC.

It was also found ‘cuckoo smurfing’ had been committed - when a person unwittingly allows their bank account to be used to deposit money.

The victims of this operation were expecting a large cash payment into their bank accounts, but the money had come from Rushi Investments Ltd using criminal funds - the bank accounts were being used to try and disguise the origin and destination of the cash.

Detective Constable Grant Bailey said: “ We will now carry out confiscation proceedings with a view to taking back the ill-gotten gains obtained through this criminal conduct.

“If you suspect anyone of being involved in money laundering – for example, if a person is trying to bank an unusually large amount of cash with no explanation for it or if their explanation for the cash does not seem legitimate – you should report it to police immediately.”

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will be scheduled.