The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has charged three individuals with fraud for their alleged involvement in a high-risk trading scheme, which targeted people’s pension savings.

Kristofer McGuire, Keith Williamson and Karla Walker have been charged with multiple offences, including fraud by false representation and fraudulent trading, after they targeted victims by persuading them to invest in contracts for difference (CFDs).

Many victims of the alleged fraud were encouraged to use their pensions to invest which were then traded to generate large commissions for those running the scheme, with victims’ pension funds almost entirely lost.

The FCA alleges that Mr McGuire, Mr Williamson and Ms Walker made false statements to a trading platform that their clients were professional investors.

Mr Williamson and Mr McGuire are accused of fraudulent trading, and Mr McGuire faces five further counts of fraud by false representation.

The FCA alleges:

• Between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2017 Kristofer McGuire, Keith Williamson and Karla Walker made untrue and misleading representations to a CFD trading platform that clients met the qualifying criteria for professional investors when in reality, they did not.
• Between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2016, Keith Williamson and Kristofer McGuire engaged in fraudulent trading using detrimental trading strategies when trading CFDs to generate excessive commissions at the expense of investors.
• Between 1 April 2016 and 28 February 2023, Kristofer McGuire made further untrue and misleading representations to 5 individual investors to persuade them to invest their money through him and/or his firm K&K Consult LTD.

The total known loss to victims is over £8 million.

The defendants will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 7 June 2024.