A former Premier League footballer “exploited trust and friendship” as he operated a “disastrous” Ponzi-like scheme that left investors almost £9m out of pocket, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
Richard Rufus, once voted Charlton Athletic’s greatest ever defender, used nearly £3m for his “own purposes” and lost more than £5m through currency exchange trading, said Bankruptcy Registrar Clive Jones.
The 40-year-old former centre half, who spent his entire career at the club, was found to have operated a £16m scheme that was similar to “well known Ponzi schemes, the Registrar said.
Taking money from almost 100 investors, including family, friends and officials at two London churches he had links with, the one-time England Under-21 international gave money which came from the pockets of some investors to other investors, pretending it was profit.
The scheme had been “disastrous” and investors had lost more than £8m in total, the Registrar said.
Investors were found to have been paid back just £7,362,094 under a scheme which the footballer had promised would yield a 5 per cent monthly profit on top of their original stake.
What he had done was “in substance a fraud,” the Registrar said, adding that Mr Rufus had been made bankrupt in 2013 in the wake of investigations by financial authorities and was discharged from bankruptcy a year later.
This led to an investigation by experts from the Governments Insolvency Service, who argued that further restrictions should be placed on Mr Rufus to protect potential investors.
Asking the judge to make him the subject of a “bankruptcy restrictions order” Deputy Official Receiver Paul Warner said it would prevent him from getting credit of more than £500.
The judge said the Rufus case was “particularly serious” and imposed the bankruptcy order, which he said would last for 15 years.
However, he said it was not for him to decide whether or not Mr Rufus should face criminal proceedings.
Church Commissioners have launched a separate investigation into how a £5m investment given by Kingsway International Christian Centre in Walthamstow to trustee Mr Rufus – a born-again Christian – went missing.
