PTI

London, Jun 6: Three Indian-origin businessmen who swindled banks in Britain and the United States of more than 300 million pounds by pretending to run a worldwide metal trading empire have been sentenced to nearly 25 years in jail.

Virendra Rastogi (39), Anand Jain (43) and Gautam Majumdar (57), ex-directors of metal trading business RBG Resources, were convicted at London's Southwark Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud on 23 April.

Pronouncing the sentence on Thursday, Judge James Wadsworth said: "They created a very impressive front that fooled banks, the metal exchanges in both countries, (UK and USA), and well respected accountancy firms".

"They were involved in years of calculated dishonesty." During the trial, he noted that "they had shown no shadow of regret or remorse or repentance."

Rastogi, who has earlier figured in the Sunday Times’ Rich List, was sentenced for nine years and six months, Jain for eight years and six months and Majumdar for seven years and six months.

In addition, the three have also been disqualified from acting as company directors for various periods: Rastogi for 15 years, Jain for ten years and Majumdar for ten years.

The sentences came at the end of a long drawn out international investigation. When investigators from the Serious Fraud Office swooped on Rastogi in his Mayfair apartment in London in 2002, he was found shredding wads of documents.

For six years, Rastogi reportedly conned banks into funding non-existent metal trading deals using 324 fake companies that turned out to be based in small flats and shops, with few assets beyond a table and chair.