Film fraudsters tried to con St Paul's out of £100m

Fraudsters posing as Hollywood film producers almost succeeded in conning St Paul's Cathedral of £100m.

The gang asked St Paul's to give them the money to put in a United States Treasury-linked investment scheme, claiming it would generate another £50m, which would be enough to renovate the cathedral's dome.

Two men made an initial approach to the canon of the cathedral at the end of a Sunday service. Two meetings with representatives of the cathedral followed, one in a luxury London hotel suite hired by an Arab prince.

The plot was foiled after a tip-off to police who sent in undercover agents posing as financiers.

City of London Police revealed the scam yesterday after the Crown Prosecution Service offered no further evidence against a defendant in the case, Giorgio Rubolino, 41, an Italian lawyer, at Southwark Crown Court. Another Italian, Antonio Barea, 28, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to defraud St Paul's and is to be sentenced on 10 June.

An American, Joe Lowrey, 67, and Andrew Jalassola, 32, from Finland, were arrested and charged in June 1999, but were later bailed by the courts and absconded to West Palm Beach, Florida. Two other men – an American calling himself Ron Wood and a Canadian known as Anthony Foster – are also still wanted by police.

Major General John Milne, registrar of St Paul's Cathedral, said: "The idea that the cathedral was nearly duped is totally incorrect. We do not have £100m so there is no way that we could have given them that sort of money. We did speak to the individuals and very quickly realised there was something wrong and we started our own independent investigations into their proposals."

Detective Inspector Bob Wishart, of City of London Police, said Mr Wood and Mr Foster first approached the canon at St Paul's. He said: "They purported to be wealthy film producers. They offered £50m to help repair the dome of the cathedral. The canon was obviously not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and was very interested and referred them to the cathedral fund-raising organisation."

But police became aware of the deal and Mr Wishart said that inquiries "established quite early on that these three individuals were all scammers".

In June 1999 a meeting was held between gang members and St Paul's fund-raisers at the Mandarin Hotel in Knightsbridge. Two undercover officers posing as financiers attended the meeting and Mr Lowrey and Mr Jalassola were arrested afterwards. Mr Wishart said the gang had tried a similar fraud on the Church of England pensions board and had attempted to swindle £8m out of Marlborough College in Wiltshire.

Police are unable to extradite Mr Lowrey and Mr Jalassola from Florida because there is no extradition treaty with that state for charges of conspiracy to defraud, Mr Wishart said.

According to a brochure supplied to St Paul's, the company, Helix Capital Limited, was involved in international film and television financing, was an Isle of Sark corporation and was registered in the Caribbean island of Nevis. Mr Lowrey, Mr Wood and Mr Foster were listed as the directors.

The brochure claimed Helix was a holding company into which rights for scripts, literary work, merchandising, distribution and copyright worth £400m had been put. It said Helix also held additional assets of nearly £1bn, which had been audited by Price Waterhouse and Deloitte Touche in June 1998.

CVs were given to St Paul's in which those involved with Helix claimed to have had a part in scores of feature films, including Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai.