An international arrest warrant has been issued for a City of London trader who absconded while on bail before being convicted in absentia of running a £70 million Ponzi scheme.
On Monday, Anthony Constantinou, 41, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of one count of fraud, two counts of fraudulent trading and four counts of money laundering.
It is not clear whether he was given conditional bail but it is not uncommon for defendants to be given bail in criminal trials where violence is not involved.
The jury heard Constantinou set up Capital World Markets (CWM) in 2013 and offered investors returns of 60 percent per year on foreign exchange markets.
Constantinou appeared at investment seminars and was recommended by word-of-mouth.
He told investors they would receive returns of 5 percent per month and people were offered financial incentives for introducing other investors.
At least 250 people are believed to have lost money in the fraud.
CWM was a pyramid scheme where new investors’ money was used to pay dividends for existing members.
When City of London Police moved in to make arrests in March 2015 they found a gaping hole in the company’s accounts.
City of London Police had begun an investigation into CWM in 2014 and managed to freeze the scheme before it collapsed, preserving as much money as possible from being taken out and deterring future investors who would have lost their money.
Constantinou Spent £3 Million on ‘Lifestyle Events’
When detectives investigated Constantinou they found he had spent £3 million of his clients’ money on “lifestyle events,” including his wedding and a CWM launch party.He also owned several expensive cars, including a Range Rover and a Ferarri.
There is no suggestion Chelsea or any of CWM’s other commercial partners were aware of the fraud Constantinou had perpetrated.
Detective Inspector Nichola Meghji, from City of London Police, said: “This has been a long-running and complex investigation. Anthony Constantinou is a career criminal who is out to make as much money for himself as possible, with no regard for anyone else.”
She said: “Throughout this lengthy investigation, Constantinou has continued to try to deceive officers and deny any wrongdoing. In a further move to deny any involvement in this case, he decided to stop attending his trial.”
Meghji added, “We are glad that the jury has seen through his lies and unanimously found him guilty.”
Investors were told only 10 per cent of their capital was risked in forex trading and the remaining 90 percent was held safely in a “segregated account” in Germany.
They were further assured their money was matched by CWM itself and were given a guarantee from Constantinou himself.
But Bloomberg reported that during the trial, prosecutors said Constantinou did not even know how foreign exchange trading worked.
Prosecutors said no money was ever invested in foreign exchange and the returns were simply paid from new investors’ funds.
Fooled People Into Believing he was Wealthy
The trial heard other CWM employees were fooled into believing Constantinou—who is believed to have links to Greece and Cyprus—was independently wealthy.Emma Beazley, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was a callous scam targeting members of the public. Many people lost their hard-earned money because of Constantinou’s greed and false promises in this fake investment scheme.”
Madoff died in jail in North Carolina in April 2021, aged 82.
