First prison sentences for a carbon credit boiler room: eight and four and a half years, $9 million lost, a bank froze the money
On 18 April 2013 at Kingston Crown Court, Ian David Macdonald was sentenced to eight years and David John Downes to four and a half years for a carbon credit boiler room that defrauded UK "investors" of a total of $9 million, according to the blog REDD-Monitor. It reported that these were the first prison sentences for such a scheme. The scam ran from January 2007 to December 2010.
- Year
- 2013
- Where
- United Kingdom, Canada
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $9.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Carbon credit fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-28
The facts, as recorded
- REDD-Monitor, citing the City of London Police, reported that Macdonald and Downes systematically cold-called people, many of them elderly, and pressured them into buying voluntary carbon credits and shares as highly profitable investments.
- The City of London Police described the investments as almost or completely worthless. The biggest individual loss was $600,000.
- Hundreds of people paid millions of dollars into Macdonald's Canadian and US bank accounts. Essex Police and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau alerted the City of London Police to these transactions.
- In November 2010, when Macdonald and Downes asked their bank to wire $1 million to a Swiss company, the British Columbia Securities Commission blocked the transaction and froze the account over suspicions about the origins of the funds.
- A month later they were arrested at Heathrow on suspicion of fraud by false representation and money laundering.
- The police operation, Operation Skijump, wrote to 1,800 people believed to have been targeted. When the phone lines opened, officers fielded 495 calls in two days.
- A City of London Police detective said much of the money was recovered and would be returned to victims.
Why this case matters
It is the earliest of the carbon credit cases here. A securities regulator in British Columbia blocked a $1 million wire to Switzerland and froze the account because of suspicions about the origin of the funds. The two men were arrested a month later at Heathrow, according to the City of London Police as reported by REDD-Monitor.
What the source is
The source is a blog post by Chris Lang on REDD-Monitor, which quotes the City of London Police and does not link to a court record. The facts are the police’s as reported by the blog. The post adds its own comments, including that the UK financial regulator played no role because voluntary carbon credits are not regulated, and this page treats that as the author’s comment, not a finding.
The caveat
Macdonald and Downes were sentenced, and the $9 million loss is the blog’s figure for the amount defrauded. The post does not say how many victims there were or how much was recovered.
Sources
- Green collar crime: Prison sentences for two men behind a UK carbon credit boiler room scam. REDD-Monitor, by Chris Lang. Accessed 2026-10-28. Supports: Every fact above: the sentences and court, the $9 million, the cold calls, the City of London Police descriptions, the Canadian and US bank accounts, the frozen $1 million wire, the arrests, Operation Skijump and the recovery.