A City trader posed as a multimillionaire with links to the Vatican and Spanish nobility to scam €100m (£73m) from an international shipping firm, a court has heard.
Luis Nobre, 49, pretended to be a well-connected international financier to dupe the Dutch shipping firm Allseas Group out of the money in 2011, jurors were told.
Nobre was one of a gang of fraudsters who convinced Allseas Group it would receive €1.2bn within three years if the firm invested €100m in the scheme, it was claimed.
However, the fraud was exposed when Barclays bank grew suspicious of the multimillion pound transactions.
Opening the case at Southwark crown court in London, the prosecutor David Durose told the jury: “Allseas were seeking to raise capital in order to fund the building of a new ship and had available the enormous sum of €100m to invest.
“They took advice from a series of individuals about how best to use this money. Initially, they sought advice from former employees, but were referred on to others on a number of occasions. Ultimately it is clear that the individuals who ended up advising them were not the international financiers that Allseas thought they were.”
Durose said Nobre was a member of a gang of conmen led by Marek Rejniak, who is on the run.
Jurors were told that the conmen boasted of having access to “secret and lucrative” forms of trading connected to the Vatican via the Spanish nobility, the House of Aragon.
Durose added: “As a result of the actions of the fraudsters Allseas lost control of the entire sum of €100m although they did not realise they had been defrauded for some time as they were led to believe the money was still in the process of being invested on their behalf.
“In reality, the stolen money was transferred out of an account controlled by Allseas through an account controlled by Rejniak and finally into the hands of the defendant, Luis Nobre.
”As far as they knew, the money had been transferred to a trader who was to use it to make the agreed investment on their behalf. Nobre used the vast majority of the money that was expended from the account for his own ends until the remainder was frozen.”
Nobre, a director of businesses registered at exclusive addresses in Harley Street and Marylebone, central London, sat in the dock shaking his head as the prosecution opened its case against him.
He denies one count of acquiring criminal property, five counts of transferring criminal property and three counts of possession of articles for use in fraud.
A second defendant, Buddika Kadurugamuwa, allegedly helped launder £111,400 of the cash, the court heard. He denies one count of being concerned in a money-laundering arrangement, and one count of transferring criminal property.
The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, continues.
