Fraudulent City boss ordered to pay back ยฃ64 million


A City boss compared to the The Wolf Of Wall Street has been ordered to pay back ยฃ64 million over his role in a multi-million poundย Ponzi-style investment scam, prosecutors said.

Anthony Constantinou remains on the run after he fled the UK during his fraud trial at Londonโ€™s Southwark Crown Court in June 2023.

Hundreds of investors were duped out of a total of ยฃ70 million between 2013 and 2015 while he ran Capital World Markets (CWM).

A spokesman for City of London Police said a confiscation order was made against him on Thursday for the sum of ยฃ64 million, which is payable within three months.

The default period of imprisonment was set at 14 years.

Police released photographs of some of the luxury vehicles Constantinou spent his fraudulent money on, including a Porsche, Range Rover and luxury motorbike.

They previously said he was thought to be in Turkey or Dubai after being stopped in Bulgaria with a fake Spanish passport.

CWM had high-profile sponsorship deals with the Honda Moto GP, Chelsea Football Club, Wigan Warriors rugby league club, Cyclone Boxing Promotions and the London Boat Show.

The seven-week trial heard how Constantinou spent ยฃ2.5 million of investorsโ€™ money on his โ€œno expense sparedโ€ wedding on the Greek island of Santorini in September 2014, while his sonโ€™s first birthday party a few days earlier cost more than ยฃ70,000.

More than ยฃ470,000 was paid for private jet hire to fly him and his associates to Moto GP races across Europe as well as a return flight to Nice for a 150,000-euro five-day yacht cruise around the Mediterranean to Monaco.

The firm paid ยฃ200,000 a quarter to rent โ€œplushโ€ offices in the Cityโ€™s Heron Tower, while nearly ยฃ600,000 was spent on just six monthsโ€™ rent of his large home in Hampstead, north-west London, where his luxury cars were parked in the drive.

Promised returns of 60% per year on risk-free foreign exchange (FX) markets, a total of 312 investors trusted their money to CWM.

Some were professionals but most were individuals who handed over their life savings or pension pots, with a large number of Gurkhas paying into the scheme, said prosecutor David Durose KC.

Constantinou denied wrongdoing but was found guilty of one count of fraud, two counts of fraudulent trading and four counts of money laundering and sentenced to 14 years in prison in his absence.

Adrian Foster, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: โ€œThis was a callous scam targeting members of the public. Many people lost their hard-earned money because of Constantinouโ€™s greed and false promises in this fake investment scheme.

โ€œWe continue to pursue the proceeds of crime robustly with the City of London Police, where we identify available assets to disrupt and deter large-scale frauds like this case.

โ€œIn the last five years, over ยฃ478 million has been recovered from CPS obtained confiscation orders, ensuring that thousands of convicted criminals cannot profit from their offending. ยฃ95 million of that amount has been returned to victims of crime, by way of compensation.โ€

Constantinou was previously jailed for a year at the Old Bailey in 2016 after being found guilty of sexually assaulting two women during after-work drinks.

One of the victims described how the parties were just like the raucous scenes depicted in Martin Scorseseโ€™s The Wolf Of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as rogue New York trader Jordan Belfort.

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