A Former English Premier League (EPL) footballer has been jailed for scamming friends and family out of £15 million to maintain his lavish lifestyle.
NEWS BREAK reports that Richard Rufus pretended to be a successful foreign exchange trader to convince his trusting victims to invest.
according to @TheAthleticFC Richard Rufus the Former Premier League defender has been handed a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of a £15million trading scam pic.twitter.com/f9KKtVJnII
— 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐍 (@CollinsNick19) January 12, 2023
Rufus played 288 games for Charlton Athletic between 1993 and 2004, and is a former England youth international.
In 2005 he was voted as Charlton’s greatest-ever defender and was later inducted into their hall of fame in 2013.
The 47-year-old was found guilty of fraud, money laundering and carrying out a regulated activity without authorisation at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.
Rufus falsely claimed to have made multi-million-pound returns for a church and good returns for other footballers or ex-footballers.
“Rufus acted in a selfish manner without any concern for his victims,” Roger Makanjuola of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said.
“He took advantage of his status as a professional athlete, a respected church member and he used the goodwill of his family and friends to scam them and associates out of millions of pounds by falsely claiming he was able to offer a low-risk investment in the Foreign Exchange Market.”
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