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.