Great frauds in history: Kautilya Pruthi’s Ponzi scheme

Kautilya Nandan Pruthi persuaded a large number of clients including famous sportsman and actors, to part with over £100m, which he used to fund his playboy lifestyle.

Kautilya Nandan Pruthi was born in India in 1970 and moved to the UK at the age of 15. In 2005 he set up a company, Business Consulting International, with his associates Kenneth Peacock and John Anderson. Taking advantage of Peacock’s membership of Surrey County Cricket Club, the trio persuaded a large number of clients, including cricketer Darren Gough and actor Jerome Flynn, to hand over money, claiming they could make returns of up to 13% a month by lending at high rates to businesses unable to borrow from banks.

What was the scam?

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri