Former boss of a City of London foreign exchange company has been ordered to pay back £64 million after large scale fraud convictions

The former director of a finance company, based in the City of London, has been ordered to pay back £64 million or spend 14 more years in prison from a large-scale fraud.

Anthony Constantinou, 41, was found guilty of Fraud by false representations, Fraudulent-trading, and Money laundering at Southwark Crown Court. Constantinou was convicted by a jury in his absence, having absconded during the trial and was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on 9 June 2023.

The case involved an investment scheme known as the ‘Managed Account’, which was provided mainly by a company referred to as CWM (Capital World Markets or CW Markets), although different varieties of the scheme were run through different corporate entities.

From the latter part of 2013 through to March of 2015, CWM offered investors remarkable returns of around 5% per calendar month (and hence 60% plus per annum) on allegedly risk-free transactions on the foreign exchange (FX) markets, usually for a minimum investment which was £50,000 rising to £100,000 later in the timeframe. Hundreds of such investments were made and the aggregate amount involved was in approximately £70 million. Constantinou, controlled CWM, its related companies, and the key bank accounts used.

‘Investors’ were attracted to the scheme by the promise of these high rewards and were told that CWM could offer such rewards because of special ways of foreign exchange trading that gave the companies access to preferential prices and meant they would always make money on their trades. Unfortunately, these claims were false.

The companies did not invest tens of millions of pounds in the foreign exchange markets. They did not make a fortune and pay their investors out of that. What was done was much more straightforward and fraudulent. Investors returns were paid directly out of the investments, and the rest of the money was spent.

Millions of pounds were lavished on the image of CWM, including sponsorship deals designed to make the company look successful and thereby attract yet more investment, and millions of pounds were paid for the benefit of Constantinou who controlled the funds.

The Judge determined the following:
 - Anthony Constantinou - Total criminal benefit: £97,900,873.41 (£69,830,325 + £2,877,000 from investors plus change in value of money). Available amount: £97,900,873 Confiscation Order: £64,000,000 with a Compensation Order for the full amount of
 

the £64,000,000.

Adrian Foster 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.  

“We 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.

“In the last five years, over £478 million has been recovered from CPS obtained Confiscation Orders, ensuring that thousands of convicted criminals cannot profit from their offending. £95 million of that amount has been returned to victims of crime, by way of compensation.”