In Law the term "Evidence" is used to indicate the means by which any fact or point in issue or question may be proved or disproved in a manner complying with the Legal rules governing the subject.

He who alleges a fact must prove it.

Nothing shall be admitted in evidence that does not immediately prove or disprove any fact or point in issue or question.

That above is sacrosanct in English Law and irrebuttable,either that or my Tutors got it wrong!!!

There is no evidence that John Dance has committed any crime or was party to any crime so why the rush to find him guilty and convict him was my original point?

A jury of peers from here?

Does anyone know how Dance got his lucky break to start with so that hundreds of millions were placed with him.

He must have done something right at the very start.

Or what is the mix of company's/people that have lost out..... Big pension firms or ordinary joe's?

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John Dance accused of overseeing 'one of the largest frauds perpetrated by an FCA regulated individual'
Civil proceedings against John Dance are to be paused to prioritise a criminal investigation
Civil proceedings against John Dance are to be paused to prioritise a criminal investigation
Credit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has alleged that well-known racehorse owner John Dance oversaw “one of the largest frauds perpetrated by an FCA regulated individual at an authorised firm” after successfully arguing in court for civil proceedings to be paused to prioritise a criminal investigation.

In April last year, Dance’s firm WealthTek LLP, which also traded as Vertem Asset Management and Malloch Melville, was shut down by the City regulator after the discovery of “serious regulatory and operational issues”.

Dance’s assets were subjected to a £40 million worldwide freezing order with special administrators appointed by the High Court subsequently revealing there was an £80.4m shortfall in client funds.

In November last year, the freezing order against Dance was upgraded to a restraint order under the Proceeds of Crime Act. In January, the FCA applied for the civil investigation into potential regulatory breaches relating to client funds and custody assets be delayed to allow its investigation into the potential criminal offences of fraud and money laundering to be prioritised.

On Friday, Judge Baumgartner found in favour of the FCA, stating “the criminal investigation being pursued by the FCA should take priority over the High Court proceedings with a view to the FCA making a charging decision within the 12-month stay”.

As part of the written decision, the judge published a summary of the evidence provided by the FCA, including witness statements provided by FCA manager Anthony Williams.

Bravemansgame (far) was among the horses to have raced in John Dance's colours
Bravemansgame (far) was among the horses to have raced in John Dance's colours
Credit: John Grossick
Williams said the FCA’s investigation had found that alongside the shortfall in client funds, there had been “an increase of about £25.6m in the sums flowing from WealthTek to Mr Dance, taking the total to about £49m” and the discovery of alleged “earlier misconduct” with “suspicious flows of client money and assets of about £21 million from WealthTek to Mr Dance in the period between 2014 and 2020”.

As a result of its investigation, Williams said the FCA considered Dance’s actions as potentially “one of the largest frauds perpetrated by an FCA regulated individual at an authorised firm”.

The FCA also told the judge it had “reasonable grounds” to suspect Dance had misrepresented how client money was held, what permissions he had to invest client capital, and that he had transferred significant sums of money to his personal bank accounts “and to companies and other entities with which he is closely associated”.

Dance has not spoken publicly since WealthTek was closed in April. In the judge’s decision, the FCA said Dance had not given any indication of what his defence might be to the allegations of "receiving and diverting tens of millions of pounds of client money to his personal bank accounts and the apparent forgery of a letter setting out his FCA permissions”.

In a statement released on Friday, the FCA said: "The investigation into suspected criminal offences in respect of WealthTek LLP and Mr Dance continues. Progress in that investigation has led us to focus our resources on the suspected criminal offences. The option to restart our civil case remains open to the FCA.

"The restraint order for Mr Dance remains in place. The purpose of the order is to preserve assets and make them available for a future confiscation order, which can only be made following a criminal conviction. The special administration ordered by the High Court also remains.

"The BHA remains responsible for matters relating to Mr Dance’s participation in horseracing activities."

Before the FCA's intervention, Dance was a significant owner, breeder and sponsor in racing. Among the horses to carry his colours were six-time Group 1 winner Laurens and Bravemansgame, who won the 2022 King George VI Chase and finished second in last year's Cheltenham Gold Cup.

A regulator that doesn't regulate. Appears to be the norm.

BDO’s latest report also detailed how it expects any proceeds from future civil or criminal proceedings brought by the Financial Conduct Authority against Mr Dance will be made available for those impacted by WealthTek’s breaking of regulatory rules. Within the report, BDO said: “Without waiving privilege, the joint special administrators (JSAs) have undertaken a funds flow analysis of circa 75 bank accounts previously operated by the LLP with a view to obtaining a better understanding of the inflow and outflow of funds. This involved the review of circa 52,000 transactions covering a period of over 12 years.

“This work has assisted both the client asset reconciliation and in developing the JSAs’ understanding of how the client asset shortfalls have arisen. Due to reasons of confidentiality and to avoid prejudicing any actions that the JSAs may identify against any third parties, the JSAs are unable to provide any further information in relation to the funds flow analysis at this time. This is normal market practice and in the best interests of clients and creditors.”

deary me

ITV racing were all over Dance like a rash. They’ll suck up to anyone with money, regardless of where it came from.

Ms Cumani paid a visit,doubtful they would give him a second glance now…..

was it primarily a washing machine for cash, and front of house execution only as cover? i look at a lot of finance 'stuff' on the web, and I have not come across anyone claiming to have had investments with this operation.

A Day in the Life of John Dance

A day in the life of...John Dance, founder of  Newcastle based boutique, Vertem Asset Management.

My day usually starts at around 6am, depending on whether two hungry Dobermans beat my alarm to the punch in waking the house up in the morning.

Once the dogs have been let in to the garden then – like many of my peers – the TV goes on and I catch up with the news around the world.

CNBC is the channel of choice at home and throughout the day in the office.

I will usually arrive in the office for around 7.30–8am, though my colleagues will testify that since the arrival of the aforementioned pooches, the ‘range’ has become more extreme at both ends.

First job is to check for any urgent overnight emails and take action where necessary. Then I start making my way through company announcements and market reports.

My colleague Gary Stockdale circulates a morning ‘observations’ email identifying interesting news from the day’s company updates and valuation opportunities. This frequently prompts a discussion with the relevant person covering any stock of particular interest and acts as a catalyst for further analysis.

We sit down together as an office, contest and discuss the stock notes we each circulate on a daily basis and make group decisions on whether they warrant inclusion or exclusion from portfolios.

We have similar discussions regarding asset allocation and the factors that influence it. While Gary and I carry the most sway in these types of decisions, we have a real collegiate approach and the whole team have influence in one way or another.

The way markets operate and act has changed greatly since I started in the industry and they evolve at an ever increasing pace.

Part of my time is spent evaluating our investment process and ensuring it also evolves to suit the way markets behave – never anything dramatic, just small tweaks and refinements that hopefully have helped us maintain performance.

Often, chunks of the day are sacrificed to either fund manager meetings or fund sales rep meetings.

The latter can be time-consuming but as we like to have a real feel for what is happening within the funds we hold, it is important to maintain good relationships to help facilitate information flow.

I find my email inbox an uncontrollable beast at times, most days will see 150+ emails and even allowing for spam and ‘too good to be true’ offers, there is quite some volume to make my way through.

News items and fund updates make up a large portion, but there is always a healthy dose of client queries and IFAs looking for investment proposals for new clients or those whose needs have changed.

I also have the business itself to run, software queries, developments, problems with custodians or wrapper providers, which always make untimely appearances and make doing any of the above from paragraph two onwards quite a stretch.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful team, who are very dependable and plug on with tasks when I don’t have time. A day in their lives would probably start and end with ‘carry John’…


.https://citywire.com/wealth-manager/news/a-day-in-the-life-of-john-dance/a831558