Alternative investments director banned for 14 years for mis-selling

Ozden Hassan, a 47 year-old from south-east London, originally worked for his family's jewellery business before becoming the sole director of two companies offering alternative investments. The companies offered a range of alternative investment opportunities in commodities such as carbon credits, rare earth metals, gold and coloured diamonds. Investors were led to believe their funds would be used to buy physical gold items, such as bars and coins, which would then be kept in secure storage, and would be owned by the investor. Customer funds were actually used, however, to buy ‘unal...