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It was the last thing I was expecting as I sat in my office late one evening. I had been using some new facial recognition software, seeing how well it worked. I put a photo of Craig Arch – the CEO of Cask Whisky Ltd, the multi-million-pound international award-winning cask whisky business – into the software.
I wasn’t expecting to get much but I couldn’t have been more wrong. There, in front of me, was a police mugshot. The articles linked to the image told of a £6.2m fraud with hundreds of victims. And the man behind it was the one staring back at me.
I have spent years investigating serious criminals. From human traffickers and gunrunners to contract killers and cocaine smugglers. One thing I never thought I’d end up investigating was whisky.
BBC Producer Liam McDougall told me of a source he had – a whistleblower – who said that organised crime had infiltrated the whisky industry, that he had compiled a hitlist of suspect whisky investment companies, and would we be interested in looking into it?
One of those on the list was a company called Cask Whisky Ltd. It was set up in 2021 and, in its first year of trading, it reported a multi-million-pound turnover. It boasted of operations in Hong Kong, and it was winning awards. The CEO was a man called Craig Arch.
In interviews, he spoke of opening brand new headquarters and doubling their staff in the first twelve months. He also told of their ambitions for the future, and said he was “excited for what the next few years will bring”.
It was only when I put his photo into the face recognition software, that I discovered the shocking truth behind the man. His real name is Craig Brooks. He was jailed in 2019 for his part in a £6.2m investment scam. The 350 victims were mainly elderly.
He had come out of prison, changed his appearance, changed his name to Arch, and set up Cask Whisky Ltd. Disqualified from being a director, he put his fiancé – an eyebrow technician from Essex – down on the paperwork as the boss.
I spoke to investors who had handed over tens of thousands to Craig Arch and his gang, believing they were buying the best of whisky, in casks, which would give them returns of 13% or more. Yet the investors discovered that many of the casks they had bought, had either been heavily overpriced – up to five times in some cases – or didn’t exist at all.
Little did they know that they had, in fact, been handing over their money to a convicted fraudster. A man disqualified from being a director, who had been jailed for his part in a £6.2m investment scam.
During the secret meeting, Brooks told me he had 11,000 clients all over Europe, built up over a seven-year whisky career. “The youngest is 19,” he told me. “The oldest is about 92.”
As for the size of his business, he said: “I’ve got contracts with all the warehouses in Scotland. The majority of clients, they start small and so, anywhere between £3,000 and £50,000.
So, I think my largest trade is £1.4m. We can receive any amount up to £4m without notifying the bank.”
He told me there was no mark-up on the casks they bought for investors, and they only made money down the line from the sale of those casks.
Brooks then proceeded to give me a list of casks for my client to buy – totalling almost £1.5m. I showed the list to several industry experts, who said they were heavily overpriced – in some cases, up to ten times the real value.
As for the company, he ran it, he said, and all financial decisions were made by him. “We’re in safe hands?” I asked him. “Yeah. 100%.” he said.
When I confronted him a few weeks later, he admitted his real name was Brooks, but said all the whisky he had previously sold existed, and that he hadn’t been jailed for fraud, but for unfair business practices. The two colleagues who were also using false names, said they had simply been using names given to them when they joined the new company.
During my eight-month investigation into the whisky trade, I met so many investors with heart-breaking stories of losing all they had. And I discovered the callous tactics that criminals were using to take it from them.
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