World Wise founder Noel Strachan facing multiple charges in US
Noel Strachan, the former head of Jamaican investment firm World Wise Partners, has been indicted in the United States district court in the Southern District of Florida, along with 10 other defendants.
He is facing multiple charges, including wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The Florida Southern District Court has also granted a motion to seal the case which was filed on October 27, 2022. The motion to seal was signed by Magistrate Judge Alicia O. Valle.
Allegations are that between March 2017 and April 2019, Strachan and his co-accused acquired vehicles through various means, including by theft and deception. It is further alleged that the defendants prepared and submitted documents to remove the vehicles’ lawful owners and lien holders from the title, and then retained the vehicles for personal use or sold them for a profit.
The vehicles listed in the indictment were luxury cars.
World Wise was among several unregulated alternative investment schemes that collapsed in the late 2000s after being served with a ‘cease and desist’ order by the Financial Services Commission.
However, before the FSC could serve the order, Strachan and his family migrated to the United States.
With a promise of a 200 per cent yearly return on investments, many people had joined with the investment group and lost more than $200 million when it collapsed, according to law enforcement authorities.
Since that time, Strachan has stridently denied that he operated a Ponzi scheme and used his clients’ funds to purchase a private jet, several luxury vehicles and real estate in Florida.