A fraudster who fled to avoid a 14 year jail term has been ordered to repay £64m from the proceeds of his crime or have 14 years added to his sentence.

Anthony Constantinou, 41, was the former director of City of London finance company Capital World Markets (CWM).

He ran a Ponzi-style investment scheme which cheated around £70m from victims.

He was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for 14 years for fraud in June 2023 but police launched an international manhunt for him after he absconded during his trial.

He was last located in Bulgaria, heading for Turkey. Police believe he may be in Turkey or Dubai.

The case involved an investment scheme known as the ‘Managed Account’, which was provided by CWM.

From 2013 to March of 2015, CWM offered investors returns of around 5% a month, 60% plus a year, on allegedly risk-free transactions on FX markets, usually for a minimum investment of £50,000 rising to £100,000. Hundreds of investments were made and the aggregate amount involved was approximately £70m.

Victims were attracted to the scheme by the promise of high rewards and were told that CWM could offer the 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.

The claims were false. CWM did not invest tens of millions of pounds in the foreign exchange markets. Instead investors’ returns were paid directly out of the investments and the rest of the money was spent.

There were believed to be more than 250 victims of CWS with some losing their pension pots.

CWM lavished millions of pounds on its image, including sponsorship deals designed to make the company look successful and attract more investment. CWM had high-profile sponsorship deals with the Honda Moto GP, Chelsea Football Club, Wigan Warriors rugby league club, Cyclone Boxing Promotions and the London Boat Show.

CWM-branded motorbike

Millions of pounds were paid for the benefit of Mr Constantinou who controlled the funds. At his trial it was revealed that he spent £2.5m of investors’ money on his “no expense spared” wedding on the Greek island of Santorini in September 2014, while his son’s first birthday party a few days earlier cost more than £70,000.

More than £470,000 was spent on private jet hire to fly him and his associates to Moto GP races across Europe as well as a return flight to Nice for a €150,000 five-day yacht cruise around the Mediterranean to Monaco.

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.”

The Confiscation Order was made against Mr Constantinou on 19 June for the sum of £64,000,000 which is payable within three months. If it is not paid within that time, he will have 14 years added to his sentence.