A fraudster who ran a £70 million Ponzi-style investment scam has been found guilty after a seven-week trial.
Anthony Constantinou, 41, was found guilty of one count of fraud, two counts of fraudulent trading and four counts of money laundering at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, City of London Police said.
He absconded during the trial and an international arrest warrant has been issued to trace him.
Constantinou, of no fixed address, ran Capital World Markets (CWM) which offered investors returns of 60% per year on allegedly risk-free foreign exchange (FX) markets, and hundreds of investments were made to a total of around £70 million.
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.
“We are glad that the jury has seen through his lies and unanimously found him guilty.”
CWM operated from late 2013 to early 2015, and Constantinou told investors they would receive returns of 5% per month and those who introduced investors to CWM also received a cut.
In the early stages of the scam, investors were told there was an initial minimum investment of £50,000, but this increased to £100,000 in the later stages.
Despite significant funds from more than 250 known victims, the money was not being invested in foreign exchange and the purported returns were being paid back to the investors from their own and others’ invested capital, the force said.
Investors were reassured the risk was further reduced, with the 10% being protected by matching funds in CWM and a guarantee from Constantinou himself.
Evidence suggested that despite others having key roles in the scam, Constantinou was the only person who knew what was really going on with the company, City of London Police added.
Others in the business were led to believe the scheme was unregulated, returns were from genuine investment and that Constantinou was a very wealthy man.
The investigation into Constantinou and CWM began in 2014.
After an initial investigation, police officers made the decision to stop the scheme before it collapsed to preserve as much money as possible from investors and to stop further people falling victim to the scam.
Officers searched the Heron Tower offices of CWM in the City in March 2015 and arrested Constantinou.
Following the search, an investigation of CWM’s finances showed extravagant spending from clients’ funds, including £3 million spent by Constantinou on lifestyle events, including his wedding and a CWM launch party.
During his police interview, Constantinou used a prepared statement denying knowledge of fraud and replied no comment to all further questions by officers.
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.”
He is due to be sentenced in his absence on June 9.
