The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Arian Financial £288,962 over the trading services provided to its clients was ‘circular, which is highly suggestive of financial crime’ and was structured to avoid tax payments, through withheld tax reclaims in Denmark and Belgium. There was a failure to conduct strict due diligence about their clients.

This fine is all linked to a long-running tax fraud masterminded by Sanjay Shah, the boss of Solo Group.

Over a two-year period from 2014 to 2015 Arian made tax reclaims in Denmark for £1.74bn, with a further tranche of claims in Belgium for £230m related to £37bn in transactions in Denmark alone.

Arian Financial was just one of seven broker firms involved with Solo over the period, the total cum-ex fraud involved £52bn in tax refund claims.