The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has banned three former senior figures at London wealth manager Dolfin Financial (UK) Limited after finding they ran a scheme that let clients bypass the Home Office’s investor-visa requirements. Former chief executive Denisz Nagy has been fined £324,800 and former finance director Sanjay Maraj £122,000; both are banned from working in UK financial services. Dolfin co-founder Roman Joukovski has also been banned, though he has referred his case to the Upper Tribunal, so the findings against him remain provisional pending that hearing.
According to the FCA, between 2016 and 2019 most clients using the scheme paid a £400,000 fee instead of investing the £2 million of their own money in UK companies that the Home Office’s investor-visa route required. The regulator found the arrangement was deliberately designed to create the false impression that the visa’s investment requirement had been met. The scheme enabled at least 99 individuals to obtain investor visas and generated at least £35.5 million in fees for Dolfin-connected businesses and the immigration agents who introduced clients.
The FCA said Nagy and Joukovski played leading roles in creating and running the scheme, while Maraj handled its financial side once it was set up, and that Nagy and Maraj deliberately concealed its true nature from both the FCA and the Home Office. Joukovski, the FCA found, also concealed his own involvement with Dolfin and acted as a shadow director without regulatory approval. Dolfin itself has been barred from carrying out regulated activities since March 2021.
“Integrity is not optional in financial services,” said Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight. “These individuals ran a scheme designed to get around the UK’s investor visa rules, undermining their purpose of attracting genuine investment into the UK. They then sought to hide how it operated. We will continue to act against those who lack integrity and undermine trust in UK financial services.”
References
Financial Conduct Authority – FCA bans trio behind £35.5m scheme designed to bypass visa rules
