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Prize-winning racehorses and a Newcastle nightclub were financed by John Dance using £64mn of client funds taken from his wealth-management firm, according to criminal charges brought against the WealthTek boss by UK regulators.
The Financial Conduct Authority said on Wednesday it had brought nine charges against Dance, including multiple counts of fraud and money laundering.
Dance allegedly used his position at WealthTek and its Vertus operation “for his own personal gain,” taking money out of client accounts “to fund a lavish lifestyle and other business interests including horseracing and a nightclub,” the FCA said.
WealthTek, which also traded as Malloch Melville, was put into administration last year after an application to the High Court by the FCA as it sought to protect customer funds.
The watchdog charged Dance, 50, with converting or transferring criminal property by moving money out of his clients’ funds into his personal and business bank accounts.
In one such move, he allegedly transferred £723,000 in 2019 to acquire six racehorses, including Bravemansgame, which won the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park in 2022 and was a runner-up at last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The FCA alleges that Dance moved money out of client accounts to finance purchases of residential and commercial property, including transfers of £806,500 in 2014 and £3.9mn in 2020.
The regulator said it had also charged Dance with three further offences of dishonestly making false representations about WealthTek’s regulatory permissions to continue his alleged fraud. The company had been regulated by the FCA since January 2020, before which it traded as an appointed representative of Sapia Partners.
“This is one of the most serious and largest frauds we have ever investigated,” said Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA.
“The special administration of WealthTek is continuing and its clients have begun to receive their assets and compensation,” the FCA said. “Approximately 84 per cent of people affected will be compensated in full.”
Acknowledging that it had been “a worrying time” for investors in WealthTek, Chambers said: “We’re pleased that clients are now seeing their assets returned.”
Dance, who is subject to a restraining order to preserve his assets for potential future confiscation pending the outcome of a trial, has been released on bail and is due to appear at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on January 3.
Lawyers for Dance did not immediately provide a comment.
