Duo remanded over 'US shares scam'

Paul Gunter, 58, and his 25-year-old daughter Zibiah Joy were arrested by federal agents in Florida and charged with multiple counts of money laundering as well as mail, wire and securities fraud.

District Court Judge Thomas McCoun III remanded the pair in custody when they appeared before him at the federal court in Tampa, Florida.

Federal public defence lawyer Howard Anderson, who represented the Gunters at their hearing, told the judge his clients were willing to turn over their passports or submit to electronic monitoring if they could be freed over the weekend to hire their own lawyers.

But the judge remanded the pair in custody.

US prosecutors said they traced fraudulent proceeds into bank accounts for two companies owned by Paul Gunter - Home Town Properties Suncoast and Home Town Properties of Florida Development.

The pair conned British victims into investing 70 million dollars (£35m) in worthless shares of more than 50 dormant, publicly traded companies in the scam, which began in early 2005, US authorities said.

According to the criminal complaint, the Gunters and others "sold virtually worthless shares of stock in the companies to victim-investors in the United Kingdom through high pressure and misleading sales techniques".

The father and daughter team then used these funds "to perpetuate the scheme and for their own personal enrichment", authorities said.

The pair engaged in a securities fraud scheme in which they hijacked the identities of dormant, publicly-traded companies, since early spring 2005 and fraudulently caused the issuance of shares of stock in the companies to the Gunters and others, and entities controlled by them.