Former Premier League defender Richard Rufus has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years after being found guilty of running a £15million trading scam.
The 48-year-old played 288 times for Charlton Athletic before a knee injury forced him into early retirement.
He was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on December 21 of fraud, money laundering and carrying out a regulated activity without authorisation. He was handed the sentence this morning having been previously told by judge Dafna Spiro that "the inevitable sentence is going to be one of custody.”
The trial heard that Rufus boasted about current and ex-footballers, including former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, 44, investing in his scheme. Prosecutors said he lost money “hand over fist”, using some of the funds to pay back investors in a “pyramid scheme”.
But the prosecutor Lucy Organ said that he appeared “able to maintain a lifestyle of a footballer” long after he was forced into retirement in 2004 because of a knee injury.
Ms Organ told jurors during a three-week trial that Rufus enjoyed the “trappings of wealth”, living in a large five-bedroom house on a private estate in Purley, south London, driving a Bentley and wearing a Rolex watch.
The court heard he received a total of £15million from investors, including around £5 million from the Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), a church where he was a member and trustee.
Rufus, from Crystal Palace, south-east London, denied claiming the investment was low risk or that he used any of the money taken for personal gain.
But he was found guilty of three counts of fraud, using around £2 million in criminal property and carrying out a regulated activity without authorisation, between May 2007 and April 2012.
The jury, which had deliberated for almost 19 hours, found him not guilty of an allegation relating to investors he had never met but the total value of the fraud he was convicted of amounted to just under £8 million, including the £5.1 million from the KICC.
The court heard Rufus remained on good terms with Charlton following his retirement and he was invited to become an ambassador for a charity linked to the club.
Described as “charismatic and energetic”, he claimed to have a track record of being a successful foreign exchange trader to persuade people parting with their money was a safe and low-risk investment.
But Ms Organ said Rufus made “huge losses”, while around £2 million put into his personal accounts for the purposes of investment was never transferred to his trading account.
One investor was ex-Charlton and Chelsea defender Paul Elliott, 58, who said Rufus told him he had been trading for friends, family and members of his church.
“He was clear to say he had made colossal sums of money for his church, for friends and family,” he said. “And he also said there were other professional [footballer] colleagues he had made substantial funds for.”
Mr Elliott paid Rufus a total of £425,000 between October 2008 and February 2011, getting back £460,000, but Ms Organ said the returns were not paid from successful trading but out of conning more people into investing in the scheme.
The court heard Rufus told another investor, Ronabir Deb, that former Manchester United star Ferdinand, had invested with him.
Mr Deb allegedly lost his capital of £47,000, while another 23 people who invested through him lost more than £1.7 million pounds.
Rufus received a rental income of £850 a month but made “personal” payments totalling £1.5 million over the period, including a £9,000-per-month mortgage, £200,000 on motoring costs and transfers to his wife’s bank account, the court heard.
“The only way Richard Rufus could fund his lifestyle was to use the funds he was receiving from the investors as part of the fraud,” Ms Organ said.
