Matthew Ames, son of troubled overseas property company Harlequin's chairman David Ames, has been jailed for 40 months for cheating investors out of £1.6m via an elaborate Ponzi scheme.
Ames - who last August was "monitoring things" for his father at Harlequin's flagship Caribbean resort Buccament Bay - was found guilty of two counts of fraud in February in relation to his two green investment firms, Forestry for Life and the Investor Club. Harlequin said in January that Matthew Ames is no longer overseeing Buccament Bay. Forestry for Life and the Investor Club took around £1.6m from investors who were promised 15% returns from teak tree plantations and rainforest protection projects. However at the time the fraud was discovered by the City of London Police and th...
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