The boss of an allegedly fake City of London foreign-exchange investment firm defrauded investors of £50 million ($61.7 million) after deceiving them with authentic-looking luxury offices and elite sponsorship deals at Chelsea Football Club, a court was told.
(Bloomberg) — The boss of an allegedly fake City of London foreign-exchange investment firm defrauded investors of £50 million ($61.7 million) after deceiving them with authentic-looking luxury offices and elite sponsorship deals at Chelsea Football Club, a court was told.
Anthony Constantinou, who ran Capital World Markets Ltd. and allegedly controlled the clients’ money, is on trial accused of seven offenses between 2013 and 2015 including fraudulent trading. Prosecutors claim CWM offered investors “remarkable” returns of 5% per month, but in reality it was a Ponzi-style scheme with no profits.
Client funds were also used to boost Constantinou’s lifestyle including his £2.5 million wedding and child’s £70,000 first birthday party, prosecutors allege. They said that hundreds of the sham investments were made and the total amount was more than £50 million.
Constantinou denies the charges. A lawyer representing him declined to comment when approached at the hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday.
Prosecution lawyers claimed that Constantinou’s scheme was made to look successful through lavish spending that was diverted from the purported investments. Individual investors, including a group from the Nepalese Gurkha community, were impressed with the firm’s luxury London-based Heron Tower offices, now the Salesforce Tower, and sponsorship deals with Chelsea Football Club and boxing tournaments, lawyers said.
“The very substantial funds lavished on such expenditure was clearly a key factor in convincing many investors that CWM was a highly successful business, rather than a cover for a huge fraud,” David Durose, a lawyer for the prosecution, said at the hearing.
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