While he has never been brought to task for the abrupt shutdown of his failed Retail Forex brokerage CWM FX, Anthony Constantinou now faces jail time due to his behaviour while running CWM FX.
The once high flying CWM FX – which although not regulated at the time by the FCA was run out of prestigious London offices in the Heron Tower and also had a sponsorship agreement with popular football club Chelsea FC – and its founder and CEOÂ Anthony Constantinou seemed to embody the Wolf of Wall Street life with lavish parties and a fraternity like atmosphere.
But that atmosphere and the behaviour it fostered is coming back to bite.
Mr. Constantinou is now facing jail time, after being convicted of two counts of sexual assault following a retrial at the Old Bailey. He was, however, cleared of one count relating to a third woman.
UK press reported that Mr. Constantinou wiped his brow and appeared distressed as the jury delivered majority guilty verdicts after deliberating for 14 hours.
The verdicts were actually delivered last month, but could not be reported until prosecutors announced that they would not be seeking another retrial on three more charges of indecent assault on two of the three women on which the jury could not decide, and for which Mr. Constantinou was therefore acquitted.
The court heard that Mr. Constantinou pushed a woman up against the frosted glass of the reception area and went on to grope and kissed her against her will.
In another incident, he assaulted another woman during drinks after a business meeting. During the meeting, Mr. Constantinou threw the woman’s mobile phone against a wall and told her: ‘Don’t answer phones in my meeting.’ Later that night, he picked up a big chunk of hot wasabi paste and shoved it in her mouth, remarking to colleagues that she had a ‘cracking arse and tits’.
Jurors were told that the woman immediately left the room but was followed by Mr. Constantinou, who pinned her against a partition and assaulted her in what she described as a ‘disgusting’ manner.
The woman told the court that she told police that he shoved his tongue in her mouth as if she was ‘a piece of meat’. She also remarked: ‘It’s literally like the film Wolf Of Wall Street’.
Mr. Constantinou, age 34, remains free on bail ahead of his sentencing on November 11. So far he has denied all the accusations against him, but he declined to give evidence in the trial. His defense team downplayed the wasabi incident, describing it as brash behaviour and that it had been exaggerated by the woman.
Mr. Constantinou was just three years old when his fashion tycoon father, Aristos Constantinou, was gunned down in his Bishop’s Avenue mansion in 1985, a crime which remains unsolved. The murder was dubbed the ‘Silver Bullet Murder’, due to the six nickel-jacketed bullets that ended the senior Constantinou’s life.