FCA Recovers £1.5 Million For Crypto Fraud Victims

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has clawed back money for fraud victims. They lost cash in a fake crypto scheme that ran for more than two years. A hearing at Southwark Crown Court on September 28, 2026, ended with confiscation orders against two men, Raymondip Bedi and Patrick Mavanga. Between them they now owe more than £850,000.

Bedi's bill comes to £603,404.28. Mavanga owes £247,997.99. Both figures trace straight back to what the FCA says the pair pocketed from a cold-calling fraud scheme.

How The Scheme Worked

From February 2017 through June 2019, Bedi and Mavanga ran an investment operation built entirely on cold calls, the regulator said. They pitched consumers on cryptoasset opportunities that did not actually exist, routing the pitches through two companies, CCX Capital and Astaria Group LLP. At least 65 people bought in. Together they lost £1,541,799, just over £1.5 million.

Cold-calling is the detail worth sitting with. Nobody found CCX Capital or Astaria Group LLP by searching for them. The pitch came to victims uninvited, dressed up with enough crypto jargon to sound current. That's still the exact playbook plenty of unregistered outfits use today.

Victims Are Already Being Repaid

The FCA says it has already tracked down and contacted the people affected. Every pound recovered through the confiscation process goes back to them, not into general enforcement funds. That's standard under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the law behind these orders. It forces offenders to hand over either the benefit they gained or whatever assets they still have, whichever figure is smaller.

Prison Came First

This isn't the first punishment either man has faced. Back in July 2025, following an FCA prosecution, a court sentenced Bedi to five years and four months behind bars. Mavanga got six years and six months for his part in the same scheme. This week's confiscation orders are a separate, second step, aimed at getting money back rather than punishing further.

Steve Smart, the FCA's joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, put it plainly. "Bedi and Mavanga defrauded investors and left them out of pocket," he said. "These orders bring victims a step closer to getting money back. We'll keep coming after fraudsters and holding them to account."

A Deadline With Teeth

There's a catch built into the order though. If either man fails to pay within three months, the consequences escalate fast. Bedi would face up to five more years in prison on top of time already served. Mavanga could be looking at up to two additional years. Neither man gets to just sit on the debt.

The FCA's own press release confirms the court dates and the two confiscation totals. It also lists identifying details. Bedi's date of birth is October 9, 1989, and Mavanga's is November 24, 1984, published to help anyone unsure if they were contacted.

Part Of A Wider Crackdown

Fighting financial crime sits near the top of the FCA's five-year strategy, and crypto fraud cases keep showing up in its enforcement docket. Just eleven days earlier, the regulator ran a separate operation with HM Revenue & Customs and the Metropolitan Police. Three London premises were targeted over suspected illegal peer-to-peer crypto trading. There are currently no FCA-registered peer-to-peer crypto businesses in the UK, which makes every one of them technically unlawful by default.

This case is a reminder that cold-calling scams dressed up as crypto investing have not gone away, years after the original pitches landed. Anyone who thinks they were targeted by Bedi, Mavanga, or the two companies named above can still reach out through the FCA's consumer helpline.