Boss of high-profile City firm which once sponsored Wigan Warriors sentenced to prison over £70m Ponzi-style scam
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Anthony Constantinou, 41, went on the run during his seven-week Southwark Crown Court trial and is thought to be in Turkey or Dubai after being stopped in Bulgaria with a fake Spanish passport.
Hundreds of investors were duped out of a total of £70 million between 2013 and 2015 while he ran Capital World Markets (CWM).
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Hide AdProsecutor David Durose KC said £5.8 million was spent “to boost the image and profile” of the firm “in an attempt to hoodwink investors”.
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.
Southwark Crown Court heard how Constantinou spent £2.5 million of investors’ money on his “no expense spared” wedding on Greek island Santorini in September 2014, while his son’s first birthday party a few days earlier cost more than £70,000.
More than £470,000 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.
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Hide AdThe firm paid £200,000-a-quarter to rent “plush” offices in the City’s Heron Tower, while nearly £600,000 was spent on just six months’ rent of his large home in Hampstead, north-west London, where his luxury cars were parked in the drive.
Almost £1 million was transferred to Constantinou and his wife’s bank accounts.
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 Mr Durose.
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Hide AdConstantinou denied wrongdoing but was found guilty of one count of fraud, two counts of fraudulent trading and four counts of money laundering last month and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on Friday.
“These offences have quite clearly caused untold misery to many people, each of whom will continue to feel its effects for years to come. This is the very human cost of fraud,” Judge Gregory Perrins said.
Describing a “catalogue of misery”, he said: “There are numerous accounts of life savings lost, family homes having to be sold, devastation, desperation and heartbreak.
“Plans for the future have had to be abandoned and many families have suffered immensely.
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Hide Ad“Some victims talk of struggling to make ends meet with no realistic prospect of the situation ever improving.
“Others blame themselves and feel shame and guilt for having fallen victim to a fraud.”
The judge said some £25 million went back to investors while other funds were spent running the business but most was used at “the whim” of Constantinou, who “thought only of himself”.
“He regularly behaved in a boorish, arrogant and intimidating manner depending upon his mood.
“He was often drunk at work and thought little of belittling others or even sexually assaulting them.
“He was a man impressed with the trappings of extreme wealth and assumed that others should be too.
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Hide Ad“He is, my judgment, a morally corrupt individual who has shown no insight into the harm he has caused to others and has shown absolutely no remorse.”