The Big Light & BBC Scotland Launch Major Investigative Whisky Podcast

A new BBC investigation has uncovered evidence of widespread criminality from organised criminals operating in the booming cask whisky investment market. 

A BBC Scotland Disclosure investigation, in collaboration with The Big Light, has revealed that three companies – Whisky Scotland Ltd, Cask Whisky Ltd and Vintage Whisky Casks – have all taken huge sums from unsuspecting victims, whom they promised large returns on investments, before disappearing with the money. In some cases, the casks of whisky did not even exist. 

The investigation reveals a new criminal commodity trade in cask whisky on a scale never seen before in the history of Scotch whisky. 

Award-winning investigative journalist Sam Poling tracked down the man at the centre of an FBI investigation, UK national Casey Alexander, who speaks for the first time since his arrest. Alexander was sentenced to three years probation by a US court in Ohio for his role in a whisky and wine investment scam, in which over 150 elderly victims across the US collectively invested more than $13m. 

Casey Alexander and others from three LLCs (Charles Winn, Vintage Whisky Casks and Windsor Jones) used “aggressive and deceptive tactics” to target elderly victims. He avoided 23 years in prison by cooperating with the prosecution. Poling finds Alexander living in Hackney while on probation.   

Disclosure speaks to the son of a victim in Cleveland, Ohio who reveals that Vintage Whisky Casks, the fake company Alexander worked for, defrauded his dying father – an 89 year old man – out of around $400,000. The man’s father, who remortgaged his family home to invest further with the company, was told the investment – in this case wine – was being held in a warehouse in the UK. 

A British couple invested over £100,000 in Cask Whisky Ltd, a company now being investigated by City of London Police. Disclosure has discovered that Cask Whisky Ltd defrauded 213 victims, making the scam larger in scale than the Vintage Whisky Casks fraud. The investigation reveals the man behind Cask Whisky Ltd is Craig Brooks, previously convicted for his role in a £6.2 Million fraud and now using a number of aliases to conceal his identity and defraud more victims. 

The Disclosure investigation also finds that behind Whisky Scotland Ltd are two men, both part of a highly organised criminal enterprise. One of their victims, who is dying of cancer, invested £76,000 of their money with the company, before both men vanished. Another invested £103,000 in a whisky-linked ISA offered by the company. The men used the victims’ money to fund lavish lifestyles, with a former director travelling the world and partying on boats. Disclosure tracks down and confronts the current director of the company. 

Cask whisky investments, which have risen in popularity in the past five years, are not regulated by any official body. 

Whisky broker and independent bottler Kenny Macdonald said investors are “dealing with a sea of sharks”. He suggests there are companies working in the shadows of Scotland’s £7 billion whisky industry who “will not find any depths that they will not plough to strip money off of genuine, honest, hard-working people. And it’s heartbreaking…”

Whisky broker Martin Armstrong described the situation as a “perfect storm”. 

“The story is going to get worse, because there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of owners out there who have already purchased casks…If they’re lucky and they have a cask, they’re going to lose money. And if they’re very lucky, they might break even,” Armstrong said.

Listen to Hunting The Whisky Bandits now on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.