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Britain fines Nigerian mortgage adviser $153,000 for fraud

  1. Posted on Tuesday 12 May 2009 - 04:35
    Streetjournal
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    Britain fines Nigerian mortgage adviser $153,000 for fraud
    Yesterday, a Nigerian mortgage adviser, Mr. Gabriel Aramide, who concealed a fraud conviction on his application to Britain’s Financial Services Authority, has been banned by the regulator and fined $153,000.
    The Director of Romford, England-based 1st Point Financial Services Limited, Mr. Gabriel Aramide, lied to the FSA about his prison sentence for fraud and submitted fake mortgage applications, the regulator said in a statement on Monday.
    According to Bloomberg News, when the FSA tried to interview him, he told the agency that he had moved to Lagos and offered to be questioned there, according to FSA documents.
    “Aside from issues of the availability of appropriate resources in Nigeria, it is unreasonable to require FSA staff to travel to Nigeria to interview you, particularly when there is no certainty that an interview will even take place,” the FSA said in a so-called final notice to Aramide.
    The fine is one of the largest by the regulator in its attempt to stamp out mortgage fraud, which had seen it ban more than 35 advisers in the last two years. The FSA has said that the recession will increase the number of home-loan frauds.
    The FSA’s correspondence with Aramide addressed to a P.O. box in Lagos was returned undelivered, the regulator said.
    Aramide stated that he had never deliberately sought to mislead the FSA, the agency said.
    “His concealment of his criminal record showed a lack of honesty and integrity on his part and the FSA will seek to prevent people like him from working in authorised firms,” the FSA’s Enforcement Director, Margaret Cole said in the statement.
    Calls to the number listed for 1st Point in Romford, England, were not answered. A number for Aramide in Lagos could not be immediately located.
    “The fine is there regardless of where the person happens to be,” said FSA spokesman, Mr. Robin Gordon-Walker.
    “We can and do pursue people for fines,” he added.

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