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London: The Greek "Wolf of Wall Street" convicted of a Ponzi scheme

He had been attracting investors since late 2013. He promised them returns of 5% per month with risk-free trading and a minimum investment of £100,000. He himself with his personal property – he told them – would guarantee their money.

This concrns 41-year-old Anthony Constantinou, a Greek-born tycoon who was recently convicted after being found guilty of 7 counts of fraud and money laundering after a trial that lasted almost two months.

At the offices of Capital World Markets

According to Bloomberg, as it turned out the reality was very different: In the offices of the trading company he ran (Capital World Markets) on the 21st floor of a skyscraper in the City of London, the charts on his traders' computer screens were fake, as were the claims surrounding his wealth. The police raid took place on March 3, 2015, following a message from a former employee who alerted authorities to the risk of the "pyramid" collapsing.

Constantinou's defiantly lavish lifestyle (he had married his wife in a $3.1 million ceremony in Santorini, with guests flown in by private jet) was financed by money put into his company by small investors. The amount of the "pyramid" fraud is estimated at 70 million British pounds.

He disappeared during his trial. Weeks later he was arrested in Bulgaria carrying forged documents, but was released and is still on the lamb.

The myth

Constantinou's company sought out clients at conferences and among acquaintances, to whom he "sold" investments they did not understand.

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