An imposture who claimed to be the Pope’s banker to defraud a shipping firm out of £73million was jailed for 14 years yesterday.
Luis Nobre, 49, and his associates pretended to be international financiers to defraud a Dutch shipping company: Allseas Group Ltd of a whooping £73million. He boasted that he could make a huge profit of 1,200 per cent a year by using the Holy Father’s secret trading platform; he lived an extravagant life at the five-star Landmark Hotel in Marylebone and abandoned his girlfriend and new born baby with an outstanding debt of £130,000.
According to reports, Nobre from Wembley along with his colleagues lured members of the shipping company Allseas into investing in the scam, boasting they had access to “secret and lucrative” trading through a platform connected to the Vatican via the Spanish royal family.
He boasted of trading trillions of dollars for the biggest Chinese Sovereign investment fund in the world, and even made an outlandish attempt to buy a £40million Highgate mansion and a chain of luxury hotels.
Nobre represented himself during the four-month trial, protested loudly his innocence and on several occasions accused witnesses of lying and bearing false allegations against him.
He was convicted unanimously by the jury of one count of acquiring criminal property, five counts of transferring criminal property and three counts of possession of articles for use in fraud.
Judge Anthony Pitts sentenced him to jail for 14 years and said: “You have no legitimate money of your own but you gave the impression of being a multimillionaire.”
