NICK CANDY: I've spent a lifetime building a property empire worth billions. But this is how even I fell victim to a £10m scam

Published: 00:59, 12 July 2026 | Updated: 00:59, 12 July 2026 You might assume that because I’ve spent my career negotiating billion-pound property deals and investing in businesses around the world, I’d be the last person to fall victim to a fraud. The reality is quite the opposite. A scammer cost my business more than £10 million, and affected countless others who have lost a lot more. But this is more than zeroes disappearing from a computer screen. Fraud gnaws at the foundations of trust that the City – the engine of Britain’s economy – has built over generations. If the authorities don’t take these cons seriously – and I urge the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate – ultimately it will be the Treasury and the British people who will suffer. Looking back, it’s easy to ask why anyone believed Robert Bonnier. The answer is simple. He was incredibly convincing. In 2021, the sharply intelligent Dutch businessman whose apparent wealth came off the back of the dotcom boom, approached Steven Smith, director of Candy Ventures. Bonnier proposed an investment opportunity centred on Aaqua, a social media platform that he presented as ‘the next Facebook’. I was told that some of the biggest companies in the world, including Apple and the luxury goods giant LVMH, were preparing to invest more than €1 billion (£850 million). He produced documentation that appeared to show investment agreements. This wasn’t just a pipe dream. Hundreds of talented people joined Aaqua. Executives left established businesses such as Sky and Barclays to work there. Bonnier’s presentations were polished, the ambition was enormous, and the vision appeared credible. Our investment wasn’t simply cash. Candy Ventures exchanged £6.75 million of shares in the lucrative podcasting business Audioboom for Aaqua shares, which we were later persuaded to exchange for those in another entity called AAA. Nick Candy, property developer and Reform UK treasurer, in 2025 while taking action for fraud against Robert Bonnier All this was portrayed to us as stages on the way to a ‘successful exit’ – that is, a substantial profit. In reality, we were being led along a path and scammed at every step. What makes this all the more extraordinary is that Bonnier had form. At the turn of the millennium, he headed an online directory called Scoot that was valued at £2.5 billion. It later collapsed. And in 2004, Bonnier was fined £290,000 by the City regulator for misleading the stock market with false claims about his stake in a company called Regus. Whenever we asked questions about his past business ‘setbacks’ he always had an explanation. In his version, he was forever the victim rather than the architect of the problem. He was clever, articulate and, having been a senior banker in the 1980s and 1990s, had genuine financial pedigree and spoke the language of experienced investors. What also made him so persuasive was his grasp of detail. Months later, he’d recall conversations, figures and timelines with remarkable precision. Rather than raising suspicion, this instilled confidence. He used codewords for projects – ‘Batteries for AAA’ is one that sticks in my mind – which made everything feel confidential and important. He also seemed fixated with his ‘magic’ number, 192. It cropped up repeatedly. The Singapore company that acquired Audioboom shares was called 192 Ltd. We were told Apple and LVMH would invest in Aaqua at €192 per share. These recurring details gave the impression that everything had been meticulously planned. He effortlessly dropped the names of some of the world’s most influential business leaders – Apple CEO Tim Cook, LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault – and insisted they weren’t distant contacts but people with whom he had genuine personal relationships. I’ve spent my career negotiating billion-pound property deals and investing in businesses around the world, writes Nick Candy Looking back, it’s easy to ask why anyone believed Robert Bonnier. The answer is simple. He was incredibly convincing. Pictured arriving at the court house in 2025 But he bristled at the suggestion we corroborate these connections, claiming that if word leaked, the investment would disappear. Looking back, this was a classic scammer’s tactic: make the victim believe that verifying the facts would destroy the opportunity. He was also a master at moving the goalposts. Every delay supposedly meant the deal had become bigger. Every complication was presented as good news. Then there were the illnesses. Whenever difficult questions arose or critical meetings approached, there always seemed to be another operation, unexpected hospital stay or medical emergency. There would be photographs from hospital beds and explanations for why meetings had to be postponed. It all seemed entirely credible. That is how confidence tricksters work. They build up hundreds of believable details that reinforce one another until even experienced investors stop questioning the bigger picture. Throughout all this, Bonnier worked with a Singapore-based UK solicitor called Joel Hogarth. Although not criticised by the court in my subsequent legal action, he helped create the investment documents and corporate structures that ultimately facilitated the fraud. He has since claimed he was unaware of the deception. Bonnier had the financial backing, too, of Dutch businessman and real estate mogul Fabian Hoes. That support gave Bonnier credibility at a time when serious questions were already emerging. The second part of the story is equally troubling. From April 2021 to May 2022, Bonnier and his wife Nashida regularly traded, or ‘washed’, Audioboom shares between them through a third party. This caused the share price to remain artificially high due to the false perception that there was significant market activity. In fact, on many days, the Bonniers accounted for between 20 and 60 per cent of all the Audioboom shares traded. Investors were attracted to the apparent increase in trading, which helped boost the share price, and made Bonnier a lot of money. Wash-trading is, needless to say, illegal. At the same time, extraordinary takeover rumours repeatedly swirled around Audioboom. Bonnier said Spotify was supposedly interested. Then Amazon. Then French media company Vivendi. The share price climbed from around £3 to more than £20. Each rumour created excitement and each supposed delay was explained away. And whenever Audioboom’s management wanted to meet these potential buyers, the meetings never happened. The share price eventually collapsed back to around where it had started. Some people will say we should have known better. But this wasn’t some obvious scam. We were dealing with someone who was a polished, practised professional. Many experienced investors believed him. Many respected executives left senior jobs to join Aaqua because they believed in the vision they had been sold. Since then, we have pursued every legal avenue available to us. We have successfully challenged Bonnier and those who backed him, including Hoes, in the courts. After we won a comprehensive civil victory last year, Bonnier was told to pay £4.6 million back to us plus interest and legal costs. We are still waiting. In fact, about £10 million remains outstanding. Civil litigation can establish liability. But where there are credible allegations of serious fraud and market manipulation, I believe the public is entitled to expect that criminal investigators will examine it thoroughly. For that reason, I am calling on the CPS, the Financial Conduct Authority and the National Economic Crime Centre to investigate Bonnier and his cronies. This is no longer simply about recovering my investment. It is about protecting that confidence in Britain’s financial markets, which rely on honesty, transparency and integrity. Everyone who abuses the system must be held to account – or that trust will evaporate. Nick Candy is a property developer and the treasurer of Reform UK  I went on my honeymoon alone... just weeks after my fiancee had died in my arms: LAURA MURPHY