Jail for Church Village conman behind £1 million fraud
A conman who fraudulently obtained a £1m loan he claimed was for humanitarian work before spending the cash on himself has been jailed for eight years and eight months.
Keith Morgan, 61, of Church Village, Rhondda Cynon Taf was convicted by a Cardiff Crown Court jury last month, of one count of fraud and two of money laundering.
He was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday, 15th October 2018.
Morgan's elaborate scam was uncovered by South Wales Police detectives, who were alerted by Morgan's bank that he had received a payment of £998,900.
A freeze was put on Morgan's bank account, but not before he had started to make a number of extravagant purchases, including buying a £68,000 Jaguar and two motorbikes costing a further £17,000 between them.
Morgan received the money after persuading a New York City-based investment manager to supply him with a short-term loan, which he claimed would be to set up a mobile field hospital as part of supposed humanitarian work with refugees.
He told would-be business partners he was a successful investment specialist, that he had dealt with billion-pound transactions, and that he owned prime real estate in Hollywood where he planned to build and sell homes worth $50m.
Morgan continued the con so persuasively that the investment manager loaned him the £1m.
However, once the money landed in his account, Morgan began to launder the cash by transferring some sums to other accounts and purchasing a Jaguar car.
Approximately £750,000 of the fraudulently obtained cash has so far been recovered.
Detective Constable Neil Richards, who led the South Wales Police investigation, said: "This was a long and complex case but which had at its core a relatively simple concept – a persuasive conman who managed to obtain, fraudulently, a huge sum of money which he then attempted to spend.
"We are pleased that the majority of the money has been recovered, although work will continue to attempt to get the remainder back as well.
"I want to pay tribute to colleagues in South Wales Police as well as the banks involved, and partners across the world, who have helped us pursue this investigation."
