Anthony Constantinou — the "Wolf of Hampstead"
On the surface, Capital World Markets (CWM) seemed like a legitimate Forex business. CWM was a sponsor for MotoGP as well as a boat show in London. The company's CEO, Anthony Constantinou, had spent time in the company of world-famous sports stars, and had even been spotted in the company of Princess Anne.
But all of that glitz and dazzle was merely a façade. Capital World Markets was a scam, and Anthony Constantinou financed his opulent lifestyle by stealing the funds of CWM's clients.
By the time law enforcement put an end to the scam, Constantinou had conned his customers out of a collective £70 million pounds. He came to be known as the "Wolf of Hampstead," and his success was built on ruining the lives of investors who trusted him.
Constantinou's ponzi-style Forex scam
Gregory Perrins, the judge who sentenced Constantinou, referred to his scheme as a "typical Ponzi fraud."
Constantinou told his investors that they could earn a 5% monthly return with zero risk by investing with him. £100,000 was the minimum investment to open an account, and Constantinou claimed he would only invest 10% of their accounts at a time. Further, he stated that he was guaranteeing their funds, meaning that if they lost money, he would replace it from his own personal accounts.
In order to keep his scheme going, Constantinou did have to issue payments to investors. But he simply paid them out from the money pooled together from all of his clients. They were not profits from real Forex trades.
An elaborate ruse
Constantinou went quite far to present the illusion that he was a legitimate Forex trader. For example, he would actually invite prospective investors to the CWM office so they could observe the trading firsthand.
But what clients witnessed in that room was all an act. One investor, Stephen Monk, testified during the eventual trial, "There was a small room with trading screens in it and he sat there and gave the impression that he was entering trades."
In fact, Constantinou had even commissioned the creation of software that would make it look like he was trading in the live markets, even though no actual trading was taking place.
Plenty of red flags
All of this is not to say that there were no indications that something was awry. Alas, con artists are experts at misdirection, drawing attention away from red flags and toward their false promises.
One red flag was that Constantinou was not remotely transparent about his trading methodology. When people would ask him to explain his techniques, he would simply tell them that his "algorithmic strategy" was too complex for them to wrap their heads around, and that his outcomes were not "luck."
There were also some weird things that went on at the CWM office. Constantinou put a ban on the use of landlines to prevent recording. And when one employee said the word "ponzi," he promptly fired that person. The traders who worked at the firm (some trading did go on there) were unlicensed, and often, inexperienced.
It wasn't just investors who missed Constantinou's red flags. Even his employees seemed to miss the signs (the prosecution in the case stated that the staff were ignorant of the scam).
Perhaps employees who missed the red flags did so in part because Constantinou's personality was so toxic all-around. They described him as aggressive and frequently intoxicated. One associate dubbed him the "Wolf of Hampstead." In 2016, he even received a 12-month prison sentence for sexual assault in the workplace (though as you will see, that was after the investigation into the fraud began).
It is easy to imagine how the signs of fraud would simply have seemed like more symptoms of Constantinou's general toxicity. Employees probably thought his rules about the phones, for instance, were just more bizarre behavior from an already bizarre and inappropriate boss. The firing over the word "ponzi" probably just seemed like more bullying from an already aggressive individual. They likely didn't think to read into it more deeply.
Investigators raided CWM in 2015
In the end, it was actually an employee who finally figured out what was going on, and got investigators involved (by that time, that employee no longer worked at CWM).
The raid on CWM took place on March 3, 2015, at 9:20 in the morning. Along with the raid on the offices, investigators also raided Constantinou's rental property. The evidence they uncovered was enough to take Constantinou to trial for his crimes. While the raids were not in time to stop all of the investors from losing all of their money, they did prevent a total loss of the remaining stolen capital.
Had law enforcement not taken down CWM and Constantinou when they did, a collapse would have been inevitable.
Constantinou sentenced to 14 years behind bars
Even though the raids took place in 2015, it was not until 2023 that Constantinou was finally sentenced to 14 years in prison. The court found him guilty of one count of fraud by false representation, two counts of fraudulent trading, and four counts of transferring criminal property.
City of London Police Detective Inspector Nichola Meghji stated:
Anthony Constantinou is a career criminal who has no regard for anyone but himself. We are glad that he has now been jailed for such a significant period of time and we hope that his victims can take some comfort in knowing how seriously the judge has taken his crimes. The fact that the jury unanimously found him guilty after his trial also speaks volumes.
The investigation by specialist fraud investigators into Constantinou has spanned a number of years and Constantinou has continued to lie and deny any wrongdoing throughout this investigation and following court proceedings.
While the 14-year sentence is excellent news to those who lost their life savings to Constantinou's Forex scam, there is some bad news— Constantinou was absent when this sentence was given. While Meghji stated:
He has now been jailed," he is speaking in terms of the legal consequence facing Constantinou, not Constantinou's current status. Alas, Constantinou is not yet behind bars.
Constantinou remains at large
The mistake the court made was in allowing Constantinou to post bail. He turned out to be a flight risk. In April, he escaped Britain, which is why he was absent when the verdict was reached.
In fact, he got arrested at the border between Turkey and Bulgaria, where he was attempting to use a fake passport to get into Turkey. For some reason, the authorities released him, and he fled once again.
Meghji commented:
Officers believe he is now either in Turkey or Dubai, but he also has family connections to Greece and Cyprus." He continued, "As a career criminal, he has access to documents and money under other names. It is not known what name he is currently traveling on or being known as, but we do know he also uses the aliases of Antonis Hadjicostis and Georgios Arnaoutakis.
There are rumors that Constantinou is already back to scamming Forex investors. Offshore Alert claims:
British fugitive fraudster Anthony Constantinou has allegedly been participating in a new Forex trading and crypto scheme that may have swindled investors out of tens of millions of dollars and involves entities and individuals in or from the Cayman Islands, England, Greece, Ireland, Malta, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates and USA, including Greek financial broker Ardu Prime and Dubai-based financial technology firm ClearTech Industries.
Needless to say, if you have any tips that could lead authorities to the "Wolf of Hampstead," you should alert the British police. Let's hope they eventually catch up with Constantinou so he can serve his time where he will be unable to scam any more unwitting investors.
