Fieldfisher

In February 2016 Roland Dransfield were appointed by international law firm Fieldfisher to raise awareness of a suspected £50 million fraud.

Our aim was to raise the awareness of the alleged fraud so more investors would come forward to join the class action. With more than £50m invested by unsuspecting people being deposited in a Cayman Islands bank – and supposedly set to be traded on the foreign exchange market – the overall aim was to get the bank to settle payments, in or out of court, with the unsuspecting investors.

To start with, Roland Dransfield’s digital team created a web page which offered a free consultation for anyone affected by the scam and acted as a point of reference for anything that we shared online and through social media platforms.

After sifting through legal documents and visiting London Police fraud headquarters, plus numerous meetings with Fieldfisher Partner Ian Austin in Manchester, Roland Dransfield’s media relations team – headed up by Alex Bell – formulated a multi-channel public relations and media campaign. One article about almost 300 Gurkhas who poured £8.5m into the scheme, ran in The Times.

Other news releases were issued to the financial and professional services and investment press, with the Professional Adviser being one of the media outlets who picked up the story.

The Yorkshire Post had a particular interest in the Nepalese community who were sadly victims of the alleged fraud. Roland Dransfield targeted Yorkshire publications and other specific media outlets across the country after obtaining names of victims and their addresses.

To maximise coverage and exposure of the case – with a view to getting as many fraud victims to come forward as possible – Roland Dransfield also issued a news release to the north west regional business press which covered our appointment to handle the brief on behalf of Fieldfisher.

The Roland Dransfield appointment release also featured in Britain’s biggest regional news title, the Manchester Evening News.

A story featuring the heartbroken leader of hundred of Gurkhas duped in the scam also gained coverage in The Business Desk.com which publishes a range of business related stories in the North West, West Midlands, Yorkshire and in the East Midlands.

We also set up a Twitter account and posted regular updates.

• 400 people joined class action
• 20,000+ microsite visitors