Ostrich farm chiefs deny fraud

Leicester Crown Court has heard how an ostrich farm which raked in £21million from investors in just 15 months, had the majority of its money laundered into an offshore account. Four men, Brian Ketchell and Allan Walker, Kevin Jones and Russell Jones, made personal fortunes totalling around £5.56million from what has been described as a “wall of money” which investors poured into the company. Ketchell and Walker started the Ostrich Framing Corporation in New Ollerton, Notting-hamshire, with the plan to offer investors the opportunity to buy ostriches, each of which was identified with a unique microchip under its skin. Investors would make their money by owning the ostrich and making profits by the sale of the bird’s offspring. However, according to Julian Banghan QC prosecuting, neither man had experience of farming, although they had arranged to buy the creatures from a farmer in Belgium. The venture took off when the two brothers, Kevin and Russell Jones, joined, taking charge of selling the venture to prospective investors. A further company, Wall Street Corporation was then set up, with an offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands, in the name of the 84-year-old mother of another man. The company was eventually wound up in April 1996; Walker, Ketchell, Russell Jones and Kevin Jones all deny conspiracy to defraud from between December 1994 and April 1996.