BT man fleeced rich in Google shares scam

A British Telecom manager has admitted swindling wealthy New Yorkers by promising an inside track to buy shares in internet firm Google and blew £230,000 (€338,000) of their money on opulent hotels, top restaurants and gambling.

Late last year, as speculation swirled around the possibility that the search-engine company would go public, Shamoon Rafiq began meeting investors in New York and telling them he was a venture capitalist and college friend of the company’s founders, prosecutors in New York said.

Rafiq, a Dutchman who was in New York working as a BT business development manager, dangled the lure of “preferred stock” available to founders’ friends and families at the pre-IPO price of £8 (€11.76) a share.

At least five investors, including a lawyer for a European telecommunications company, an investment banker, a senior brokerage executive and the chairman of a global telecom firm wired £330,000 (€445,000) into Rafiq’s bank accounts.

Rafiq could be sentenced to more than five years in prison for wire fraud under the terms of his agreement with prosecutors, two years less than he might have faced if he lost at trial.

Prosecutors are opposing Rafiq’s request to serve his sentence in the Netherlands under the terms of an international treaty governing Dutch citizens convicted in the United States.

The scheme began to unravel when the investment banker grew suspicious and started demanding his money back. The FBI arrested Rafiq in March.

Law-enforcement authorities said Rafiq spent the funds on a lavish lifestyle, including hip New York nightclubs, strippers, £65 (€95) tips for restaurant and hotel employees, and expensive watches for his friends.

California-based Google filed its hotly-anticipated plans for an initial public offering last month, aiming to raise £1.8bn (€2.6bn) with an offering expected to give it a market value of at least £13bn (€19bn).