Former Premier League player Richard Rufus has been jailed after defrauding his friends and family members out of £15m.
Ex-Charlton Athletic defender Rufus was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years after he claimed to be a successful foreign exchange trader and convinced victims to invest in his “low-risk” scheme.
The 47-year-old was found guilty of fraud, money laundering and carrying out a regulated activity without authorisation at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.
Rufus falsely claimed to have made multi-million pound returns for a church and good returns for other footballers or ex-footballers.
Rufus made 288 league appearances for Charlton between 1993 and 2004, and also made six appearances for England Under-21s.
Roger Makanjuola of the CPS said: “Rufus acted in a selfish manner without any concern for his victims. He took advantage of his status as a professional athlete, a respected church member and he used the goodwill of his family and friends to scam them and associates out of millions of pounds by falsely claiming he was able to offer a low-risk investment in the Foreign Exchange Market.
“He claimed that he had been successful with his investment strategies previously, but the investments were fraught with risk and he lost his victims’ much needed money to the amount of £15million.
“While making these huge losses he put approximately £2million into his personal accounts, allegedly for the purposes of investment but this was never transferred over to his trading account.”
