Midland financier Gary Hexley, whose collapsed firm left creditors out of pocket to the tune of more than £2 million, has been charged with six offences related to unauthorised investment advice.
Mr Hexley and business partner John Cooper have been bailed to appear before Birmingham Magistrates following a Financial Services Authority investigation.
Mr Hexley and another individual were arrested and interviewed by officers from the FSA last November. The arrests came two years after the collapse of Sutton Coldfield-based firm Greenfield International.
The FSA said: “The FSA has charged Gary Hexley with six offences relating to investment advice given whilst unauthorised.
“Hexley is a formerly approved person subject to a prohibition order preventing him from performing any function in relation to any regulated activity in the financial services industry.
“The charges are carrying on a regulated activity without being an authorised or exempt person, contrary to Sections 19 and 23 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and five counts of dishonestly concealing a material fact, contrary to Section 397 of FSMA.
“John Cooper, Hexley’s business partner, has also been charged with three offences, namely three counts of dishonestly concealing a material fact, contrary to Section 397 of FSMA,” it said.
The FSA had banned Mr Hexley in June 2011 for giving customers unsuitable investment advice.
The collapse of Greenfield International left a total of 237 creditors, including a number of elderly West Midland investors, with total debts of almost £2.1 million.
Mr Hexley was subsequently made bankrupt with liabilities of nearly £1 million and banned and censured following the firm’s demise.
Only a tiny handful of the 237 investors have so far been compensated despite suffering individual losses of up to £80,000.
• Mr Cooper previously wrote a column for the Birmingham Post.
