Inside the lavish world of playboy Ponzi scheme fugitive: How supercar-loving conman behind £70M FX scam lured in investors with champagne-fuelled parties and private jets… but is now at centre of global manhunt
- EXCLUSIVE: Fraudster Anthony Constantinou’s practises have been exposed
- A man who lost thousands to the conman describes him as a ‘toddler’
- Constantinou would hold humiliation parties at work where he drank constantly
- The convicted crook is now on the run and subject of a global manhunt
In a dimly lit North London mansion, a group of half-naked men laugh and drink surrounded by glasses and empty bottles of wine.
To raucous cries from his familiars, a large topless man pours vodka from a magnum of Grey Goose into the mouth of a man cross legged on the floor.
Without warning, he aims the liquid directly at his face – the alcohol stinging his eyes as he feigns amusement, while his room cheers.
This is just one peak behind the curtain of convicted fraudster and sexual abuser Anthony Constantinou’s exploits between 2013 and 2015 – where he almost got away with swindling £70million from global investors in a Ponzi style scheme.
Now speaking for the first time to MailOnline, an investor who saw hundreds of thousands of pounds go up in smoke after investing with Constantinou, 41, has told how the ‘volatile’ character was fuelled by expensive alcohol and delighted in savage workplace bullying…
Constantinou would hold wild house parties where he would intimidate colleagues
In one shocking clip he is seen pouring Grey Goose vodka on a man’s head
Anthony Constantinou duped hundreds of people into believing he could bring investors returns of 60 per cent a year on ‘risk-free transactions’ on the Foreign Exchange (FX) markets
The conman pocketed £70million from investors and went on the run during his trial. Pictured is one of his Range Rovers funded through his fraud
Constantinou enjoyed a playboy lifestyle riding around on a superbike branded with his Capital World Markets (CWM) logo
He had a collection of supercars including this Porsche which was later seized
Constantinou is the subject of a global manhunt after he stole £70million from investors in his London based Capital World Markets (CWM) brand by duping them into believing he could bring returns of 60 per cent a year on ‘risk-free transactions’ on the Foreign Exchange (FX) markets and instead pocketing the cash.
Last week, the conman – who was jailed in 2016 for sexual assault – was convicted in his absence at Southwark Crown Court and he is now on the run.
Between 2013 and 2015 when his scam was at its peak, Constantinou curated a playboy lifestyle for himself and spent millions on private jets, flash cars and the rental of a ‘£10 million’ mansion on Wildwood Road, Hampstead, north London.
It was these assets – alongside his sponsorship deal with Chelsea FC and ludicrously expensive headquarters in the City of London’s Heron Tower – that convinced the investor, 41, to commit to the Greek national’s project – something he told MailOnline he now bitterly regrets.
‘He put out this image of himself as being hyper successful and I think essentially that’s what I fell for’ recalls the man who wished to remain anonymous, who first met Constantinou in 2014.
‘Initially I had dismissed the whole thing as too good to be true but I saw so much evidence of it being genuine that I convinced myself that it was. I should have listened to my gut.
‘I thought essentially if this is a scam he wouldn’t have gone to this much effort. It was very elaborate and there were a lot of people involved.
CLICK TO READ MORE: The REAL Wolf of Wall Street
‘The clever thing he did was he did actually have a properly regulated FX business in London (CWM was real and regulated) but he ran the Ponzi alongside it – that was quite clever.
‘So seeing the office, his house, the chauffeur driven Rolls Royce he got around in and all these sponsorship deals – it did all look very genuine.
‘If Chelsea are being sponsored by them and he’s meeting showing Princess Anne and showing her round the office it feels legit.
After a few meetings with Constantinou and his CWM colleagues in 2014, it was agreed that the businessman would invest £140,000 and work with the company to set up a Dubai base.
It was whilst working alongside Constantinou in his ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ style trading floor, that he saw how difficult, volatile and untrustworthy the fraudster could be.
He continued: ‘Every single business meeting – and I mean every single one – he would force everyone in the meeting to drink.
‘It was always the same, Grey Goose vodka mixed with orange and cranberry juice and he’d force everyone to stay and get drunk.
‘The drinking would start from 2pm in the afternoon and go on until 10 or 11 at night and it was every single meeting every day.
‘He was like a spoiled child king. Nobody could leave these sessions or he’d have a tantrum and lose his s***.
‘A few hours in he’d be absolutely wasted so he’d be doing stupid, weird stuff like throwing things across the office to annoy people or smashing doors.
‘He was a pretty nasty piece of work.’
According to the investor, opting out of Constantinou’s demands wasn’t a choice as his paranoid, controlling and spiteful nature leaked into the entourage of underlings he kept at his heels.
He said: ‘His entourage was Stalin-esque. He kept his circle close and everyone just did as he said for fear of reprisals.
‘He was a moody child who would fly off the handle for basically any reason. You always had to tell him what he wanted to hear.
‘He had a Telegram group where he sent good morning messages. He expected every single person to reply with either a thumbs up emoji or a muscle emoji – if you didn’t, he would lose his s***.
‘One of his assistants would then phone you up and say: ‘Listen you have to reply to him in the Telegram group, he’s going mad and smashing stuff up in the office.’
Constantinou based his CWM fraud out of an office on the 21st floor of London’s Heron Tower
The outwardly successful businessman even showed Princess Anne around the office
Police have now issued an international arrest warrant after he was convicted in his absence at court for fraud. Constantinou (pictured) was previously jailed for sexual assault in 2016
Anthony Constantinou arriving at the Old Bailey with his wife Penny ahead of his 2016 sentencing
This anti-social behaviour also extended to outside of the office at Constantinou’s Stamford Bridge box and £10 million rented Hampstead mansion where he would hold court.
Recalling one particular incident, the investor remarked that he was stunned by how Constantinou’s wilful savagery and wastefulness was applauded by his ‘sycophantic’ mates.
He said: ‘We went to his house once after a Chelsea game. He had a box at Stamford Bridge and was renting a £10 million mansion in Hampstead.
‘Everyone was jumping in the pool and he brought out this gigantic five-litre bottle of Grey Goose and he was just pouring it over this guys head and all over his face and all his guests were cracking up.
‘This is the sort of thing he loved doing, he would get a kick out of humiliating other people in front of an audience – he was a p****.’
Father-of-two Constantinou came from obscene wealth being the youngest son of fashion tycoon Aristos Constantinou, who was gunned down in his Bishop’s Avenue mansion in 1985 when Anthony was aged just three.
He would throw wads of cash at employees, poured vodka down their throats and smashed crystal flutes as he downed champagne at his wild after work celebrations.
Whilst in Dubai, after another lucrative acquisition to his fraudulent empire, he allegedly spent £30,000 on champagne and vodka in a nightclub and only drank about 10% of the contents – giving the rest away.
The investor believes this outrageous lifestyle and image was part and parcel of the deception he used to weasel money from his victims.
He said: ‘He was a fantasist when it came to his wealth – but he was fairly liquid, although it’s impossible to say how liquid he was.
‘To rent a Rolls Royce, private jets, a £10 million London mansion and the office space in London as well as all his other luxuries suggests he was fairly liquid.
‘He was spending money hand over fist. I know he inherited several million from his father – he certainly had a few million at any one time.
I mean he was still flying Emirates first class in 2018 long after the Ponzi was shut down – so to do that you’ve got to have a bit of cash.’
On one lavish night in Dubai, Constantinou allegedly spent £30,000 on champagne, the conman (right) then gave away the majority of the champagne to other revelers
Of course, Constantinou’s wanton hedonism and complete disregard for everyone around him would eventually catch up with him.
In 2016, he was jailed for a year for sexually assaulting two women as he celebrated making millions of pounds.
The crooked finance chief stuck his tongue down one woman’s throat after force-feeding her eye-wateringly hot wasabi paste from a £500 sushi platter.
He groped another woman’s breasts and forcibly kissed her at a bash thrown to toast a £1million profit.
True to his vile form, Constantinou had tried to claim his victims were lying to get his money but he was convicted regardless.
Upon his release from prison, the investor says there was a change in the crook – but his old habits still lingered under the surface.
He said: ‘When he came out of prison, from what I gather he was a lot less volatile, he had sobered up metaphorically and physically.
‘In 2018 I bumped into him in the lounge at Dubai airport. I was heading to Athens and so was he. I was in economy and he was in business class. I had a chat with him and he said: “I was a victim, I was scammed too.”
‘He’s a pathological liar, I don’t even know if he believes his own s*** really.’
Constantinou pictured outside the Old Bailey court during his sexual assault trial
After going on the run during his own trial, an international arrest warrant has been issued for Constantinou who will be sentenced in his absence on June 9 2023.
According to the investor, it is likely the disgraced crook is holed up in Dubai, and if his past form is anything to go by, he could yet have another scam up his sleeve.
He said: ‘If I was to guess where he has gone now, I would say Dubai on a fake passport.
‘He has apparently moved most of his assets here. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s setting up another scam to be honest – he’ll need to or he’ll run out of money.’
Source: Read Full Article
