City watchdog secures £1.6m order against money laundering fugitive
A fugitive businessman convicted of money laundering in one of the UK’s largest ever insider trading case should return £1.6m or have eight years added to his prison sentence, a London court ruled today.
Luxury watch dealer Richard Baldwin was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison after being convicted of money laundering in 2017 following the Financial Conduct Authority’s Operation Tabernula investigation.
If Baldwin does not pay the confiscation order within three months, his sentence will be extended.
The 53-year-old went on the run during his trial, and is still at large. A warrant has been issued for him to appear before the court.
Baldwin, who ran a luxury watch business in Marylebone, laundered the proceeds of insider trading through offshore firms and bank accounts as well as false invoices between October 2007 and November 2008.
“‘Money-launderers compound the harm caused by crime by helping to cover up the offence and the proceeds from it. Mr Baldwin remains a fugitive,” said Mark Steward, the Financial Conduct Authority’s executive director of enforcement.
“However, this will not prevent us from pursuing a confiscation order to recover the benefit a person has obtained from their criminality,” Steward said.
City PM has reached out to Baldwin’s legal team for comment.
During Baldwin’s earlier sentencing, Judge Hehir said that the businessman had been convicted on “compelling evidence” of “extremely sophisticated” money laundering.
Baldwin’s business partner Andrew Hind was convicted of insider trading in 2016 alongside Martyn Dodgson.
According to the FCA, Dodgson provided Hind with inside information from the investment banks at which he worked.
Hind then carried out secret deals to benefit himself and Dodgson, with the proceeds received and laundered by a company Baldwin established in Panama.