Trader Alex Hope has been sentenced to 603 days’ imprisonment for failing to pay the full value of a confiscation order made against him.
The Confiscation Order in the sum of £166,696 was made on 12 February 2016 at a hearing before Her Honour Judge Taylor at Southwark Crown Court. The period afforded to Mr Hope to satisfy the Order expired on 12 May 2016. As of today’s date, Mr Hope has paid just £1,000 in satisfaction of the Order.
The sentence imposed today is in addition to the term of 7 years’ imprisonment that Mr Hope received on 30 January 2015.
Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight, said:
The FCA will continue to make sure wrongdoers do not profit from their crimes at the expense of victims. Confiscation orders cannot be ignored and will be enforced.”
On 9 January 2015, Mr Hope was convicted of defrauding investors of significant sums, having previously pleaded guilty to operating a collective investment scheme without authorisation. In total, over 100 investors entrusted Mr Hope with over £5.5 million on the promise that their funds would be used to generate substantial returns by his trading on the foreign exchange markets. In reality, only 12% of the total sum investors gave was ever traded and when Mr Hope did trade, he lost almost all of the money in his trading accounts.
As a result of the work of the FCA, almost £2.65 million was identified and frozen in accounts controlled by Mr Hope, which was returned to investors earlier this year. Mr Hope spent a significant proportion of the remainder of the funds on a lavish lifestyle, including gifts to family and friends. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the value of tainted gifts can be recovered and Mr Hope was ordered to pay a sum equal to the value of the gifts he made to friends and family.
All money recovered from Mr Hope will be used to compensate the victims of his crimes.