Professional sportspeople put their body and soul into becoming the best they can be. So, when something goes wrong, it can be devastating. Injury and other career setbacks are well understood by athletes, but there is another challenge that is not as well known – that of sports investment fraud.
But what is sports investment fraud?
Financial sports fraud happens when athletes are persuaded to invest in risky, unregulated, and unsuitable investment schemes – often by unscrupulous or inexperienced financial advisors. Often these advisers fail to explain the risk, fees, charges, and details of any investments recommended.
As a result of negligent or fraudulent financial advice, many former and current sportspeople have:
- Lost hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds.
- Become bankrupt.
- Made unregulated, unsuitable, and potential fraudulent investments.
- Discovered that they cannot access their money.
- Been hit with high taxes, fees, and charges.
Professional sportspeople are targeted by fraudsters
Sportspeople often rely on professional financial advisors to look after their money. Unfortunately, they can put their trust in the wrong people. Unscrupulous advisors can groom professional athletes for many years, with sportspeople routinely targeted because of their high net worth.
Because sportsmen and women can become victims of the people they trust the most, when the worst happens, it is not just financially devastating, but also emotionally distressing.
How to spot sports investment fraud
Spotting investment fraud can be tricky. In our experience, sportspeople should be especially wary of:
- High-risk and exotic investments such as overseas property, wine, movies, commodities, cryptocurrency, or unlisted shares.
- Promises of big returns.
- Being targeted (often via cold calls) by unknown financial advisors.
- Being talked into investing by friends/colleagues who are not professional, regulated financial advisors (or without receiving advice from a professional financial advisor first).
The best thing you can do to avoid sports investment fraud is to make sure you appoint a regulated financial advisor in the first place. If you have found an adviser you would like to use, you should check the Financial Services (FS) Register to ensure they are regulated and approved. If you appoint an FCA regulated advisor, you will have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) should something go wrong.
Getting your money back after sports investment fraud
At KP Law, we help professional athletes who have fallen victim to financial fraud and negligence get their money back. As well as claiming for the financial losses suffered, we can also claim compensation for any emotional distress experienced.
Advisors to sportspeople, sports agents, and clubs on financial sports fraud, we know what it takes to make a winning case. We also routinely work with our clients’ accountants, new financial advisers, and agents to identify and combat fraud or mis-sold investments, and to recover money.
To make a claim, contact us with your details and our team will be in touch. Signing up is straightforward and costs nothing as we act on a no win-no fee basis.
