All language subtitles for Lies.Deceit.and.Betrayal.S01E04.Ghedia.1080p.ALL4.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-HiNGS_track3_[eng]

Education has always been very core
to me.

He had this business idea of
creating this app.

It was his dream.

We needed investment.

I sat down next to Rajesh Ghedia.

He was very sure of himself.

He explained to me that I would put
my money in, £142,000,

but I could take out the
£1.5 million investment.

This is the start of something

very big.

It seemed too good to be true.

Ghedia's driven by his own greed.

They'd got into his account
and stolen the money.

You start to feel really nervous
and worried.

How can this possibly happen?

He seems to be getting a kick out
of it.

He would send people around
with guns.

It was horrendous.

To walk away from it isn't even an
option.

They were very, very dark days.

19 miles west of London live
Wayne and Nicky.

The couple first met in Hobart,
Tasmania in 1996.

I had a cafe at the time
and Wayne would come in

and he'd order a toasted
chicken sandwich

and he'd forget to pay.

He'd say, "Oh, you know, I'll bring
it round later..."

He was really interested in me as
a person.

And I'd never had anyone who sort
of grilled me to that extent.

We got together quite regularly.

It was a good time, actually.
Those times were good.

A few years later,

the couple are married and decide
to move to the UK.

In 2004, we got a place to live in
Egham.

That was good, nice community. We
had three girls.

We'd got jobs in the area. The girls
went to school here.

When we came here,
we made friends very quickly.

I met Wayne and Nicky

at Foxhills Club.

I was drawn to Nicky because I used

to live in Sydney, Australia.

So that Aussie accent caught me
immediately.

And we've been very good friends.

On Sundays, we try to meet up
and have a drink.

He likes to barbecue and she's a
great cook herself.

And as a couple, they are very
strong.

After coming to the UK,

Wayne had an ambition
to start his own business.

Education has always been something
very core to me.

I trained as a teacher.

I've a Bachelor of Education.

I've always wanted to help people
learn

and achieve their maximum potential
in learning.

He had this business idea
of creating this app,

and it meant a lot to him.

Wayne calls the app Super Learning
Series.

An educational content application

that can be used across all
different learning abilities

to help improve spelling,
grammar and maths.

The development of this app was
really going forward.

The only thing stopping it was
some funding.

He really needed to get together
some funding.

In December 2018, with Wayne chasing
investors,

a potential early Christmas
present arrives.

Our friend Kay had organised
a Christmas party for

the neighbours. Good food, a lot of
drinks for Christmas.

They're are always great parties.

I sat down next to a gentleman.
Rajesh Ghedia was his name.

I've never met Ghedia before this.
Black top, black jeans.

I didn't find any positive energy
from him.

We got talking about a range of
different things -

what excites us, what passions
we've got.

Mine was education.

He had a certain passion
for kids' toys and learning.

So we connected there.

He informed me that he was

a very senior executive at Bank
of America.

He said he owns three apartments in
Mayfair, one for each of his kids.

Wayne tells Ghedia he is speaking

with investors about his education
app.

He said, "How much are you looking
for?"

I said "£1 million."

He said, well, would we be
interested in talking to him?

And I said, "Absolutely." And I
thought, "This is just perfect."

We were quite excited about it all.

Wayne isn't the only friend Ghedia
makes at this time.

John is running a personal training
business in

the nearby affluent area of Virginia
Water,

when he meets a new client.

This guy comes in. He's called
Rajesh,

looking for personal training.

Really friendly, quite charming.

I remember when he first arrived
because he pulled up in

a really swanky sports car, which
isn't unusual for Virginia Water.

He told me what he did for a living
and he handed me his card.

And it said, "Vice President of
Bank of America,

"in charge of investments." And I
was just like, "Wow."

It appears that Rajesh Ghedia is
really keen

to let people know about his
lifestyle,

his job, his wealth.

I'm wondering whether this is
a way for him to start

to assess to see how people
respond to

the way in which he talks about
his businesses

and who might be most easily
manipulated.

It's not long before Rajesh
and John have become good friends.

A couple of years pass
and the business is flourishing.

And I mentioned to Rajesh

that I might actually consider
selling up,

at which point he says the timing
was perfect.

I think Bank of America were just
dealing with

an expansion of a big cinema chain.

He said, "Would you maybe consider
investing that money?"

Ghedia's suggestion comes at
a pivotal moment for John,

who had shared with him that he was
grieving the loss of his father.

Losing my dad was horrendous.

My mum was in pieces, obviously,
so I had to look after her.

Money felt really important at the
time.

And so if I could take care of that,

then I could take care of
the family.

Ghedia promises John a 9% annual
return on his investment,

which he can then withdraw at
the end of the year.

I remember asking him questions
about the deal and he said, "Look,

"I'm doing this for you and your
mum,

"and I want you to do the best by
them."

And I thought that was just so nice.

Ghedia makes this emotional right
from the start.

He talks about John's father
passing away.

He can see how hard John is working
to make a living

and he's using all of those things
as

a way of getting John onboard

and to manipulate the situation
to his own advantage.

I had some friends that worked in
the finance industry

to check over the paperwork and
then they said, "It checks out.

"It's great. Go for it."

John commits to putting £65,000 into
this investment scheme.

To quote Rajesh, he said, "It's a
banker. It's a surefire win."

So, yeah. I went ahead.

A few weeks after Christmas,

Wayne meets Ghedia at a local cafe
to discuss

a potential £1 million
investment in his business.

So I walked up there. He was
already waiting for me.

He'd done his homework. He'd looked
at the website.

Ghedia then makes another
unexpected offer.

He said he didn't think £1
million would be enough,

and he would like to invest
£1.5 million.

I thought, "Wow, this is

"just what I need."

It seemed to be too good to be true.

I had my doubts that someone could
just meet at a party

and go through and do that sort
of thing.

I can remember saying, "What do you
want from it?"

He didn't want anything at that
time.

but he was planning to leave that
industry,

and he would then come

and pick up a role in the business
off

the back of the success that we
would have.

I immediately thought, "Well,
we can expand faster,

"accelerate our sales strategy
and bring on more people.

"This is the start of something
very big."

Filled with confidence for
the future,

Wayne starts to draw up a contract.

Everything looked so shiny,
so bright, so positive.

I never, ever had any idea that it
would turn into such

an absolute horror story.

DOORBELL RINGS

Rajesh.
RAJESH SPEAKS FAINTLY

Not bad. How are you?

Wayne has been promised a
£1.5 million business investment

by his neighbour, Rajesh Ghedia.

But who exactly is he?

Ghedia was very sure of himself.

He spoke eloquently.

He lived in a nice house. His kids
went to good schools.

He was very community conscious.

When we started having a few
burglary problems in The Grove,

Ghedia was giving information

and suggesting all kinds
of security stuff, camera.

He even hosted a meeting in his
house.

And he was always, always talking
about his homes in Mayfair

and the security system that
he uses.

He was helpful in that manner.

Ghedia has offered to personally
invest £1.5 million

into Wayne's business, and says that
he will do this through

a Bank of America wealth portfolio
account designed especially

for large investments.

He explained to me that I would put
my money in, £142,000.

He would then put his money in,

and we could then grow that.

But I had to leave my £142,000
in there,

but I could take out the
£1.5 million investment.

I actually hated
the fact that we had to come up

with that money, because we didn't
have it.

But, ah, you know what? It was his
dream.

I was there to support Wayne.

So I did check with some of my
finance people.

They knew of these investments where
you put money in.

With such a reputable company like
the Bank of America,

there would be no reason
to think that this wasn't real.

Meanwhile, John has been persuaded
by Rajesh Ghedia

to invest money from the sale of his
business into

a cinema chain.

My first big investment was
£65,000.

A lot of money, especially for me to
transfer over.

John goes to his bank in person
to make the transfer.

When I got to the counter, the lady
said,

"So do you know where you're sending
your money?"

And I said, "Yeah, it's a verified
Bank of America scheme."

And she gave me some paperwork
to sign.

I remember just feeling so
optimistic and excited

cos I can finally pay some more
attention to my family,

make my mum feel good
and finances are looked after.

Even though John has sold the
business,

he still keeps on private clients,
including Rajesh.

Rajesh and I would never talk about
business or investments

while we're in the gym. I'd often
get updates over email as

to how investments were going. And
it was always good news

to know that the money was growing
whilst life was going on as normal.

I mean, this is a guy who very much
in the community and a close friend.

And, yeah, I have no concerns at
all.

So this is a long-term project for
Rajesh.

Building trust is a key part of a
con artist's work.

He produces all the documents,
all the evidence,

and he's able to use all
of those things as a means

to convincing and manipulating John.

With the success of the first
investment,

Rajesh offers John another
investment opportunity for

an even higher rate.

I was immensely grateful, because he
doesn't have to

go out of his way. Obviously,
it must be some kind of

friends-and-family initiative that
he's passing on to me

to get these rates. I invested
another £65,000.

John has now invested over
£130,000 into

an investment scheme organised
by Rajesh.

Which is more money than I've seen
in my life. But I'm reassured.

Every email comes from an official
Bank of America address.

Every bit of paperwork was
officially headed paper.

It's safe money with a safe person.

To also make sure his money is in
safe hands,

Wayne meets Ghedia at his Bank
of America office.

The offices of the Bank
of America are mega impressive.

Marble floor, security guards,
receptionist, big desks.

I thought, "This is a milestone in
the journey, to go into

"the Bank of America." We went down
to the cafeteria.

He's got his name badge on,
"Bank of America, Rajesh Ghedia."

There are people next to him with

the same Bank of America badges.

They're talking to him.

He totally knew these people. They
knew him.

So if I was worried,
it was gone away after that.

Wayne was excited when he came back.

He said, "Oh, I had to go through
all this security."

It made it real. It made it real.

After the meeting at the Bank of
America office,

Wayne confidently signs a contract
with Ghedia

for £1.5 million.

I just kept thinking about

how we would roll the business out.

He could see us putting it out in
the UK, in America, in Australia.

We opened bank accounts in
different currencies.

We could see it really making
a difference.

Wayne was over the moon
and I was really, really pleased.

He thought he was going to get
a break.

With the deal signed, Wayne and
Nicky need to gather

the £142,000 investment money.

Being such a large sum, Ghedia
suggests they split up

the payments, the first being
£50,000.

So I had to go and get

a private investor to help us with
that.

He had very, very high

interest rates on this.

But we thought we would have
the money within

a week or two of that happening, so
we thought it was worth a risk.

With the £50,000 secured, Wayne
makes the first transfer

to his newly established Bank
of America account.

It was a little bit frightening,

but I did an initial transfer of £10
to make sure it worked.

But on this first transfer,

there is something odd about

the account details.

I realised that it was a Halifax
account,

not a Bank of America account.
So I said to Ghedia,

"What's going on here?" And more or
less straight away,

he sent me a table through which had
a list of banks on it.

Ghedia tells Wayne that
Bank of America

often conducts transfers through
other agent banks.

What he sent through to me was
so fast, it was so convincing.

It was all on Bank of America

headed paper and emails.

So that took away those alarm bells.

Whenever Wayne raises any doubts,

Rajesh Ghedia seems to have
an answer for everything.

As far as Wayne and Nicky are
concerned,

he's the vice president of
the Bank of America.

He's giving them all
the official documentation,

he's sending them official
correspondence,

and they've got no reason
to believe that this is fake.

Reassured, Wayne deposits the full
£50,000 into

the wealth portfolio account.

I'm now a customer with
a good bit of money in one of

the most prestigious banks in
the world.

So after the first investment
of £50,000,

I was under the impression that

the funds would be released to us.

So it came as a massive shock
to find out that

no, we couldn't access the funds
until

the wealth portfolio was fully
funded.

Ghedia begins to pressure Wayne
and Nicky

to come up with the remaining
£92,000 investment.

"When can you get the money?
When can you get the money?

"The opportunity will go away."

Some days I just couldn't
think straight.

Ghedia is making out that

Wayne will lose out on this
investment.

This is a classic tactic.

He is putting that stress
and pressure on Wayne

so that he doesn't overthink his
decision making.

They're relying on this money

and they don't want this
to slip away.

Struggling for options,

Wayne is forced
to take extreme measures.

Nicky and I discussed this.
It was a huge step to do.

The outstanding £92,000 was made
with money we extracted from

a second mortgage on our property,

which was horrific.

It took so much out of us both.

You're always questioning,
"Is this the right thing to do?"

I still have sleepless nights over
it, thinking about it.

It's not only invested in money,
but your mind frame,

your excitement, your heart and
soul.

Everything gets involved in it.

We were driven by knowing that our
education business

would be successful.

After they put a second mortgage on
their home

and Wayne transfers Ghedia
the remainder of the £142,000,

Ghedia tells them there will be
a nine-month delay

to access the funds.

I fell over. Another thing.
Nine months. Why so long?

Still, we had that carrot at
the end, you know,

"You're going to get it, £1.5
million."

In anticipation of this huge
investment,

Wayne had already hired 20 new staff
to work on the app.

He now has to break this
devastating news.

Of course they all want to know when
they're going to be paid.

We couldn't let them down.

Wayne and Nicky start to pay their
staff

from their personal reserves.

A lot of the money we used was from
our own savings

and our pension money,

which was going down very,

very fast.

We're paying repayments on
the high-interest loans

and then the second-mortgage
payments.

It's all adding up and it wasn't
nice to do the sums.

This whole thing put Nicky and I
under a huge amount of pressure.

Nicky was upset virtually every day
about it.

It was trying on us,

and we were just keeping it
all together.

The stress in the household was very
palpable when I'd go to visit them.

Like, sometimes when I'd say,
"Nicky, you OK?",

she'd say, "I don't want to talk
about it."

It was really, really worrisome.

Literally, it was just getting
through the days.

The stakes are getting really high
for Wayne and Nicky.

They've invested everything that
they can, emotionally, physically,

financially, that to walk away from
it isn't even an option.

Everything is resting on
this investment.

John has also been waiting almost
a year to cash out on his money,

as well as the profits from his
investment in a cinema chain,

done on Ghedia's advice,

a sum now coming to over £158,000.

On the day that the payment is due,

the plan is to have
a big celebratory dinner that night.

But the evening rolls around,
the money doesn't come.

Well, I wait until the morning
and I check my account again,

refresh it, and it's still not
there.

So I text Rajesh, and he says that
he's been feeling quite ill,

hasn't been at work, but as soon as
he was back in

the office that he'd look at and
it's probably just an admin error.

Back in Egham, the nine-month wait
for Nicky and Wayne

is finally over, as Ghedia tells them
they can access the investment.

The funds by now had grown
to something like £1.7 million.

We would receive codes and
passwords to enter into our portal

and that was incredibly exciting.

Ghedia had shown us bank statements.

So it was it was like, "Wow, this is
it."

At 8.30am, Wayne receives three codes
to access the account.

So I remember typing it in and when
I pressed the button,

I thought "Up's going to come my
little account statement and

"I'm going to see there's
£1.75 million."

Instead, it says, "Details don't
match."

Wayne and Nicky are attempting
to access their funds from

the Bank of America account,

but the codes from Rajesh Ghedia
are not working.

OK. Well, maybe you just transposed
it wrong.

Tried again. Same.

My heart just...bloop. That
was, like, horrid moment,

really horrid. You start to feel
really nervous and worried.

So I sent him a message, said,
"Something's not working."

Ghedia responds that the account
couldn't verify where

the money Wayne had put in had come
from

and so the bank has blocked access.

So he had to talk it through
with the people at

the Bank of America to explain

to them why this had happened
and everything would be all right.

It was all very much, "This can be
fixed. We'll sort this out."

Agh. And I've got my staff

ringing me up,

and I had to tell them, "Well, it
didn't work. There's..."

"We've got some problems, but we're
working through them."

We were just keeping our head above

water, but only just.

A few weeks later, we get some new
codes and we tried again.

Same thing. Details don't match.

This time Covid started to come in.
And strangely,

I got an email straight back
from Ghedia,

because of Covid there'd been
a lockdown on

the investment accounts.
How can this possibly happen?

Ghedia says it will take the bank
six to eight weeks

to release Wayne's account.

By this time, I was seriously
getting worried.

Wayne couldn't understand it. The
money's there.

I've seen the account. Why can't we
get it?

Everything from then on was covered
with this Covid excuse.

To get this all fixed, we have to
fix Covid

and no-one knows how do that.

With the pandemic, Wayne can see
how these

technology companies are
capitalising on

supporting children's education
using online methods.

For Wayne, this is a huge blow.

This is exactly what his product was
looking to deliver,

and he can't get it out there.
Wayne is desperate now.

He can't look for other investors

because he's invested everything
with Ghedia.

He's got no other choice
but to trust him.

Two months into Covid, Wayne and
Nicky

need to pay their debts
and get their business going.

Wayne became increasingly desperate
to find a way

to get Bank of America to release
his funds

and Mr Ghedia made
a number of suggestions to him as

to how they could do that
legitimately.

And one of the mechanisms involved
Wayne making

a further payment of around
£40,000 into

Mr Ghedia's personal business
lifestyle hut,

which could then be used through
various processes within the bank

to get the £1.5 million released.

I couldn't understand why we had
to put more money into something,

especially his own business. But
Ghedia...

..has quite a charismatic way

of talking and convincing you.
So we did.

Wayne agrees to the £40,000 transfer.

Wayne was so focused on getting

the £1.5 million released that he
didn't really question why another

£40,000 was needed.

We're almost at the point where,
well, we've come so far

and if this is a way to get it
moving, then we'll do it.

We still trusted him.

As Wayne and Nicky wait for

a confirmation of their transfer,
a suspicious email arrives.

From what appeared to be a Russian
hacker...

..saying, "Thank you,
Super Learning. We've gone in

"and we've taken £77,000 in total
from the lifestyle hut account."

This email is just so badly written.

There were so many spelling mistakes
and grammar mistakes,

you just...you couldn't believe it.

But Ghedia soon confirms the
lifestyle hut account

has indeed been hacked.

They'd got into his account
and stolen the money.

So that got me suspicious then.

John is also having difficulty
getting his investment money

out of his Bank of America account.

Rajesh gets back in touch and he
says that there's

a problem with the funding team in
Bank of America.

It would just be another week
and then it'll paid.

But then after four weeks,
still nothing.

And so I say to Rajesh, "Look, mate.
You're vice president of

"Bank of America here. This is too
much money to play around with."

And I'm threatening to call my
lawyer,

and I messaged him multiple times
a day and push Rajesh really hard.

And he says that now work Bank of
America has intercepted

and that he could potentially be
facing suspension

for passing on these kind of rates
to me.

Ghedia tells John that the Bank of
America have blocked his payment

because Ghedia was not meant to be
giving out these preferential rates.

After I spoke to Rajesh about him
potentially

being suspended, I didn't hear from
him for a while.

But I started to get emails from
a different bank

and it turns out they're an
American bank, so I figured they

must be associated with or working
with Bank of America.

And they told me that they'd be
taking over my investments

and that they'd send me all
the closing papers

and the money. And I thought, "Wow.
This has just been

"a massive misunderstanding."

But with the arrival of lockdown,

John is asked to come directly
to the London office

to pick up the money in his account
via cheque.

I think it was a bit weird that
I was being asked

to pick up a physical cheque in
a London office during lockdown.

And I said, "Look, can you not
just... Like, you have my details.

"Can you not just transfer me over
the money?"

I was like, "This just isn't making
sense."

And so I tried to reach out to
Rajesh

and he's not returning my
calls now.

Money worries aren't
the only thing on John's mind.

Lockdown made it awful, because I
couldn't visit my mum.

She was incredibly stressed
and lonely and isolated.

And I certainly couldn't speak to
her about my money problems.

It's a nightmare.

As John is losing faith in Ghedia,

Wayne and Nicky are still reeling
after learning

Russian hackers have apparently
stolen their £40,000 deposit they

transferred to Ghedia's private
business account.

I said to Ghedia, "We could lose
our house out of all this.

And I was crying and he said he
felt like crying with me, as well.

This was probably the tipping point
for me. Receiving the email,

the whole set up, losing money.

Things were just too ludicrous.

Growing suspicious, Wayne contacts
the Bank of America

to validate his dealings with Ghedia,
sending them all his correspondence.

So the Bank of America response was
that they were looking into it.

While Wayne waits to hear back from
the bank,

he reaches out to friends for help.

My business partner, Gerard, in
Australia and his son,

who's a major in computer science,

had done a lot of in-depth
forensics on the emails' headers

and realised that they weren't
coming all from Bank of America

and they were coming from different
places.

That's when I started to get
suspicious that

Rajesh Ghedia probably wasn't who he
said he was

and the whole thing was most
likely a scam.

John hasn't heard from Ghedia
for weeks,

and growing anxious about his money,

also decides to contact the
Bank of America.

I spoke to someone in customer
services at Bank of America

and I told him who I've been dealing
with. I sent them everything,

investment reports and statements.
And eventually, they got back to me

and they confirmed that
Rajesh does in fact work there,

but he works in IT.

"We can confirm to you that this
investment just doesn't exist."

John realises he has paid £130,000
into a fake account.

I felt like I'd lost everything in
that moment.

It was just unbelievable.

As John and Wayne come to terms
with Ghedia's lies,

Wayne is contacted by Action Fraud,

the national fraud and cybercrime
reporting centre.

I received an email saying they had
handed the case over

to the City of London Police

and not to tell Rajesh Ghedia
anything about it.

I was numb because I'd not ever
experienced

anything like this before. I'd
never dealt with criminals.

Nicky and I went for a walk.

A police officer at City
of London Police then rang me

and the police officer said,

"Yeah, it was confirmed it was
a scam."

Wayne went white. He was just so
shocked.

Accounts never existed
and Ghedia had stolen the money.

Whoa, man.

This is it?

This is... We're done for.

Phew.

We just cried. We just hugged each
other, held each other.

Utter, like, phew...

..an almost...nothingness.

Everything that you know is unknown
now.

We didn't know how to process it.
What does it mean?

Do we lose our life savings
and our house?

Wayne and Nicky have been completely
manipulated by Ghedia.

He's led people to believe that he
is legitimate and credible.

And this plan that he's carefully
concocted

is something that he's masterfully
done.

Following Wayne's report,
the City of London Police

and the Bank of America commence
their separate investigations.

All the while, Wayne and Nicky must
keep up pretences.

A few days after we are out and who
should we pass

that was walking along was Ghedia
and his wife.

It was extremely difficult for us
not to get angry with him.

We just had to be normal because
that's what

the police asked us to do. I
remember Wayne saying,

"Just drive straight past." And I
said, "You can't do that.

"They know the car." We pulled over
and had to talk to them.

Trying to keep it really light.
How are you?

Ghedia doesn't know that we suspect
him by now.

And in the meantime, Ghedia was
still telling me the money was

going to come on what was the third
and last date,

the 22nd of June.

The day finally arrives for
the third attempt.

So by this time, we'd sort of given
up all hope of getting access

to any £1.5 million. We just wanted
to get our money back.

But once again, the codes don't work.

And that's when Wayne rang Ghedia.

I said, "I know you're a con man.
I know you've stolen the money."

And Ghedia got nasty.

He knew where we lived
and he had friends.

He would send people around
with guns and baseball bats

and would get us. It was all very
threatening.

I yelled back at him and then

he hung up on me.

We were like, "Well, yeah. He does
know where we live.

"He's been to our house and he
could have people."

We did talk to the police.

They said if there's any trouble at
all to ring 999.

They were very, very dark, dark
days.

DOORBELL RINGS
After Wayne and Nicky confront

their investor, Rajesh Ghedia, about
his lies,

he has now threatened the couple
and their family.

Wayne was really worried for his
family.

I was worried for Wayne
and Nicky and the girls, too.

They are good people, hard-working
people.

They really don't deserve this.

Ghedia's driven by his own greed
and his own desire,

without any ounce of understanding
or empathy for

the way in which he's hurting
other people.

He's leading a lifestyle that
he can't sustain,

and that's now finally catching up
with him.

Ongoing investigations into Ghedia's
activities are coming to fruition.

The Bank of America internal team
had done the investigation,

found a lot of evidence on
his laptop, work laptop.

So we know that all the mails got
into the system.

I learnt that Ghedia was behind
the Russian hacker email.

I learnt that he was an employee of
Bank of America,

but not in the role he said he was.

To have a full-time job and to be a
full-time con artist,

that's going to be significant
stress.

He doesn't seem to be fazed by that,
from what we can see.

He's juggling these various
different scams

and seems to be getting a kick out
of it.

Mr Ghedia refused to cooperate with
either the police investigation

or with Bank of America
disciplinary proceedings.

He was then terminated by the bank.

Not long after that, he gets
arrested.

The police had sort of indicated
to us when they would do it.

Police rolled up at his place early
in the morning, I believe.

Went in there, started searching
his property, where they found more

incriminating evidence.

Police discover fake medical
documents that are clearly part

of another elaborate scheme.

In October 2020, Mr Ghedia contacted
his pension provider

and told them that he had been
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

and that he had fewer than 12 months
to live.

DIAL TONE

Hi, how can I help you today?

Ghedia repeats this story with five
pension providers

and claims £86,000.

But police go on to discover Ghedia
just couldn't stop there.

In January 2021, Mr Ghedia then

contacted his life insurance
provider

and put in a claim under his life
insurance policy.

He was then able to secure

a payout of £1.2 million from
the life insurance provider,

which he did while he was under

police investigation and
monitoring.

To fake his own cancer in order
to get

an insurance payout... How low are
you going to go?

He was on bail at the time! It's
unbelievable.

He's not only manipulating people,

he's now gone onto manipulating
organisations.

He's faked documents and he's
looking to see

how far he can take this.

So as much as this might be driven
by the finances,

this is also driven by his own
psychological gain, making him feel

powerful and in control.

We were really, really happy that we
managed to expose what he'd been up

to and stop him from doing it to
other people.

I could have been the victim also,
because at one time he was asking...

He said, "I've invested in
restaurants. If you want,

"I can invest." It is very scary.

Ghedia is brought to Southwark Crown
Court to face up to his crimes.

I decided to go to the court
sentencing.

He didn't look at me, but I know he
knew I was there

because they called my name out
in court.

Mr Ghedia was in a large glass box
in the middle of the courtroom.

He seemed somewhat dishevelled.

He didn't strike me as any sort
of mastermind criminal or otherwise.

He'd portrayed himself to me as
a high flying, rich entrepreneur,

but I saw him there as the criminal

who'd been stripped of all these
assets and had nothing

and that was satisfying.

It was there that we discovered that
we weren't

the only ones, and some of them were
his family.

I mean, how can you do that?

He had taken £600,000 off a number
of people, off six individuals.

I mean, never in a million years
would

I expect that someone that
I considered to be

a close friend would rob me
of everything I had.

In total, Rajesh Ghedia stole over

£1.8 million.

He admitted to over 30 counts

of fraud.

They had so much conclusive evidence
that it was

going to be pretty difficult
to try and

talk your way out of that one.
It's all there.

In the court they read out my victim
impact statement

and it spoke of the fact that he
had actively used

the passing of my father to
manipulate me.

He's the most callous, deceitful,

manipulative person I've ever come
across in my life.

Ghedia is sentenced to six years

and nine months in prison.

He doesn't he doesn't say I'm sorry.

My worry is he'll get out
and he'll just do it again.

I was happy that he got caught.

But at the same time, it didn't
solve the problem of my friends.

Give them back their money!

For John, there is some hope after
he learns

that his own bank may have some
culpability in his misfortune.

What we learned was that when I went
to the bank,

I'd said I want to make this large
investment

to a Bank of America account.

The person behind the till should
have said,

"Well, this isn't going into a Bank
of America...account, sir.

"It's going into a different
personal account."

His bank is found negligent and John
is returned his entire

original investment of £130,000.

I know that I'm definitely one of
the lucky ones.

There's other people that haven't
had their money back.

So I'm eternally grateful
for my very fortunate scenario.

In the months that follow, Wayne and
Nicky must deal with

the fallout from Ghedia's deceit,

having lost over £400,000 between
their investment,

interests rates and staff costs.

We are still out of pocket

and it's been a huge financial
strain on us.

We got £130,000 back from some of
the banks.

I missed opportunities. I know we
had...

We had the education software.

That definitely would have made
sales and made money.

Your credit ratings trashed.
Who's going to help that?

You're behind on a lot of critical
payments, like mortgages.

No-one helps you with that.

It's stopped a lot of the things we
wanted to do for us,

for our kids, our family.

And psychologically, we still
have huge, huge scars

and wounds from what happened.

I just think about it a lot.

I think of what we could have
done differently.

I think we did as much as we could.

DOORBELL RINGS
Rajesh.

I was an easy target for him
because I wanted something,

I was passionate about it.
I was like putty in his hands.

The longer-term implications for
victims of such scams are huge.

Their ability to trust other people
is impacted. Their ability

to trust their own decision-making
will be affected, as well.

And that is going to take some time
to rebuild.

This whole thing has gone on for
years.

But also, we are the sort of people

where this is not going to stop us.

We've still got our dreams.

We still know what we want to do.

We're still together. We support
each other.

It's not been easy at all. We have
got our children,

so that is a big comfort to us.

It has rocked a lot of things,

but luckily, we've been able
to weather it,

but I can see why a lot of people
don't.

Today, Wayne perseveres in his
to fight

to be fully compensated for his
losses

and to prevent others from being
victims of fraud.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media