FX trader ran ponzi scheme and blew it all in nightclubs

Apr 24, 2014 00:13

A young trader used investors’ cash as his ‘personal piggy-bank’ and blew more than £500,000 in exclusive nightclubs, a court heard yesterday.

The Daily Mirror reports that financial wizard Alex Hope, 25, allegedly masterminded a £5.6m Ponzi fraud to fund his hedonistic lifestyle and love of gambling.

A former Wembley stadium catering manager, he reinvented himself as a currency markets expert and claimed to have spent £125,000 on one bottle of Ace of Spades champagne.

After suspicions around his Forex fund grew, City of London police officers raided Hope’s flat in east London’s Docklands and arrested him, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Sarah Clarke said: “This was not a successful trading scheme. In fact, in truth this was not a real trading scheme at all...it was a classic Ponzi fraud.

‘He used their [investors’] funds in fact as his personal piggy-bank. A massive amount was spend on himself.

‘Personal expenditure was in the region of £2m in that period. £950,000 was paid to a casino, £512,000-odd spent in nightclubs and bars.

‘The investors who put the money in good faith had no idea this was happening.”

When Hope did play the currency markets , he sustained ‘heavy losses’, Miss Clarke said.

She said he would use new investors’ funds to pay off those who wanted to leave the scheme, in the classic Ponzi fashion.

Hope denies fraud.

http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014...sed-investors-cash-to-fund-clubbing-and-gamb/

Another "trading wizard" uncovered.

 

Many thanks for this thread. .
I remember at the time, all the positive "pr" of how he learned trading very quickly, etc...

 

Women, gambling, drinking...at least he didn't waste the money!

 

What is the typical sentence for this ? Will he have to repay the investors? I would like to meet them by the way.

 

This is the dude from Zerohedge with the bar tab:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/fx-trader-spends-323483-liverpool-night-club

At the time i thought it was a publicity stunt by the nightclub. I mean, Liverpool...

 

He seemed too fat to play semi-pro soccer like he claimed.

 

This story is almost three years old. Talk about a necro.

 

It started 3 years ago, and now down the line, the full legal process is coming to conclusions. Legal things take time.

 

And I'll bet the "catering manager" claim means he was just a hotdog vendor.

 

True Dat!