Former financial head of Immuno Biotech found guilty of three offences

Peter Edward Dawson-Ball, 64, had denied one count of money laundering proceeds from the former GcMaf company between January 2016 and February 2017, as well as two counts of acquiring or using the proceeds from criminal conduct, which totalled more than £15,000.

The jurats heard a two-hour summing up of the five-day trial yesterday morning, before going out to spend 90 minutes considering their verdict. They delivered unanimous guilty verdicts to all three charges.

The case was adjourned to March so a probation report can be prepared.

He was granted bail in the meantime. He will be sentenced alongside Samanta Macpane, 31, who admitted money laundering charges before the start of the trial.

Former Imuno Biotech CEO David Noakes was sentenced to 15 months in prison by Southwark Crown Court last November for manufacturing a drug called GcMaf without a licence and for money laundering.

Dawson-Ball had worked for the company since late 2014, having first met Noakes at the yacht club.

In court, he argued he had used his skills as a financial controller, and knew nothing about the medical side of the business.

He said he believed GcMaf was a health supplement, rather than a medicine and he did not realise it was illegal and unlicensed.

During the trial the court heard how Dawson-Ball had attended three conferences about GcMaf in Frankfurt, Cyprus and Moscow while he worked for the company. But he said he attended only those sessions where users had said how much good it had done them, rather than about the drug itself.

While for the money laundering charge the jurats had to be sure that Dawson-Ball had known or suspected something was not legal about the money, with the two further charges they had to be sure he was aware the money were coming from criminal proceeds.

Dawson-Ball had no previous criminal matters on his record.