British trader found guilty of £1.4bn fraud

A British hedge fund trader has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in Denmark, after being found guilty of orchestrating a tax fraud that cost the Danish government more than £1bn.

It is the heaviest penalty ever given out in Denmark for a fraud case.

In addition to the prison term, financier Sanjay Shah, who was the founder of London-based hedge fund Solo Capital Partners, received a permanent entry ban to Denmark and will have assets worth $1bn (DKK 7.2bn) seized, as well as a string of properties.

He has said he plans to appeal the verdict.

“We do believe that there is a fair chance that the High Court might reach a different conclusion, and obviously we’re also hoping for a more lenient judgment,” his lawyer, Kaare Pihlmann told the BBC.

Shah had entered the courtroom wearing a navy hooded sweatshirt and a red Santa Claus hat.

Seated between his lawyers, the 54-year-old Briton was calm and straight-faced as a judge read out the verdict.

Nanna Blach told the court that Shah had played a “completely central and controlling role” in a scheme that had led to “unjust” payments, adding that the crime had been “meticulously planned and organised”.

The sentence came after a high-profile trial that had lasted several months.

Prosecutors had accused Shah of being the mastermind of a so-called cum-ex scheme, using a series of complex trades in order to fraudulently reclaim more than £1bn (DKK 9bn) in dividend tax refunds from the Danish treasury between 2012 and 2015.

Shah had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, arguing that he had used a legal loophole. His defence attorneys had tried several times to get the case dismissed.

Danish prosecutor Marie Tullin told the BBC that the maximum sentence given to Shah reflected, “the extraordinarily big amount, the time it had gone on, and his role in it managing it all, over several years committing this fraud against the Danish state.”

“It is by far the largest [fraud] in terms of amount,” she added. “I think also the sentence speaks for itself, in that it is a crime haven’t seen in this magnitude before.”

Before his arrest, Shah had been living in Dubai, where he was reportedly known for throwing lavish parties and had hosted concerts for his autism charity, with performances by major celebrities.

He was arrested in 2022 and extradited from the United Arab Emirates to Denmark in December last year.

According to Reuters, so-called cum-ex trading schemes have flourished since the 2008 financial crisis, with Germany, Belgium, and Denmark among the European countries most affected.

The schemes typically involve the rapid sale of large volumes of shares from one investor to another immediately before the payment of a dividend, enabling duplicated claims of the withholding tax.

Previously the Danish government has said cum-ex schemes have cost it more than $1.8bn (12.7bn DKK). Shah was one of nine British and US nationals accused of defrauding the state.

Shah also faces a parallel civil tax fraud case in London, filed by the Danish tax authority, that is due to conclude in April.

As he exited the court escorted by police officers, wearing his Santa Claus hat once more, Shah shot a smile towards reporters, and said, “See you next year.”