London, Thanasis Gavos

They declared him guilty of fraud stockbroker Antoni Constantinou of Cypriot origin the jury in a London court.

The founder of the investment company Ccapital World Markets (CWM) promised investors impressive profits of almost 60% per year through trading in the forex market that convinced them they were safe.

The sums entrusted to him by investors, from 50 to 100,000 pounds each, however, were not placed in the foreign exchange market, but in advertising campaigns for CWM, in high-profile sponsorships on behalf of the company (among others the Chelsea football team and in matches boxing) and buying luxury cars and motorcycles for him.

41-year-old Constantinou is estimated to have received a total of £70m from defrauded customers between 2013-2015.

He was arrested in 2015 at his company’s offices in the City of London. He denied the charges, but before the final stage of his trial he disappeared, resulting in an international warrant being issued for his arrest.

The sentence for his conviction in absentia will be pronounced on June 9.

When Constantinou first came to the fore in Britain, associates likened him to Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in The Wolf of Wall Street. He did not hesitate to throw wads of paper money at his employees, pour champagne over their heads and force employees to drink bottles of vodka.

The convicted man is the son of British Cypriot fashion tycoon Aristos Constantinos, who was found murdered at his home on Bishop’s Avenue, known as the “street of the billionaires” in north-west London, on New Year’s Day 1985.

The case remains one of the greatest unsolved police mysteries of Britain.