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BGC Partners has reached a settlement with a former senior partner following allegations that he took part in a $35mn scheme to defraud the broker.
The New York-based broker, led by billionaire Howard Lutnick, had sued Xavier Alcan, who was a long-serving partner at the group’s London office, alongside a tax adviser called Michael Viney. BGC accused the pair of orchestrating a scheme to divert tax payments into their own pockets.
Court officials said BGC had reached a settlement with Alcan ahead of proceedings that were due to begin in London’s High Court this week. The group had previously discontinued proceedings against Viney.
BGC declined to comment. A person familiar with the matter said Alcan no longer works at BGC. Alcan could not be reached for comment.
The broker filed a lawsuit about three years ago, alleging Alcan had “encouraged” Viney to funnel millions of pounds of company money owed between the UK’s tax authority and BGC into the pair’s personal accounts instead. Viney was accused of using “doctored” documents replacing the tax authority’s bank details with the pair’s own information.
BGC claimed that some of the proceeds of the alleged fraud had been spent on 18 properties in England and luxury jewellery from Cartier and Bulgari.
BGC, spun out of Lutnick’s Cantor Fitzgerald in 2004, is one of the world’s biggest interdealer brokers, facilitating trades between investment banks.
The broker also alleged that Alcan had deleted text messages after the company launched an investigation.
In his defence filing in 2022, Alcan admitted to paying for extravagant gifts for Viney, including spending on holidays and expensive jewellery. However, he said he did so out of sympathy for Viney’s “smaller salary”.
Alcan denied any knowledge of frauds and said he had been an “unwitting dupe”. He said he regretted deleting text messages between him and Viney during a meeting with BGC lawyers, but said he had done so out of embarrassment rather than to destroy evidence. Viney had also filed a defence.
Lutnick said soon after the lawsuit was filed that it was “an unfortunate event” but told investors the loss was not material.