FCA charges 24-year-old currency trader Alex Hope with fraud
Alex Hope, a 24-year-old former Wembley stadium catering manager who reinvented himself as a day-trading currency markets expert in a blaze of publicity, has been charged with financial services offences and fraudr.
Investigators from the Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator previously part of the Financial Services Authority, have charged Hope and a second man over the running and promotion of an unauthorised £6m investment scheme.
It is thought Hope and the second man, Raj Von Badlo, of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, will deny wrong-doing though they could not be reached for comment.
Hope's flat in London's Docklands had been targeted in a dawn police raid a year ago and he declined to comment at the time. In an interview last year, Hope said: "I use my own money not other people's."
It is alleged they took almost £6m in funds from between 150 and 200 investors. Some bank accounts, believed to contain about £3m, have been frozen by the FCA in case these sums are eventually shown to represent funds entrusted to the scheme by investors. Hope and Von Badlo have been bailed to appear before City of London magistrates court on 8 May.
Hope fleetingly became a minor celebrity after reputedly spending more than £200,000 on Britain's most expensive round of drinks at a Liverpool nightclub. He is said to have spent £125,000 on a double nebuchadnezzar bottle of Armand de Brignac champagne as well as further bottles of champagne and vodka.
More from the source: FCA charges 24-year-old currency trader Alex Hope with fraud | Business | The Guardian
AtW's comment - since the Torygraph is now behind the paywall (which I might subscribe to) I won't be posting stuff from it anymore. So from now on it's going to be Daily Mail or The Guardian
Alex Hope, a 24-year-old former Wembley stadium catering manager who reinvented himself as a day-trading currency markets expert in a blaze of publicity, has been charged with financial services offences and fraudr.
Investigators from the Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator previously part of the Financial Services Authority, have charged Hope and a second man over the running and promotion of an unauthorised £6m investment scheme.
It is thought Hope and the second man, Raj Von Badlo, of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, will deny wrong-doing though they could not be reached for comment.
Hope's flat in London's Docklands had been targeted in a dawn police raid a year ago and he declined to comment at the time. In an interview last year, Hope said: "I use my own money not other people's."
It is alleged they took almost £6m in funds from between 150 and 200 investors. Some bank accounts, believed to contain about £3m, have been frozen by the FCA in case these sums are eventually shown to represent funds entrusted to the scheme by investors. Hope and Von Badlo have been bailed to appear before City of London magistrates court on 8 May.
Hope fleetingly became a minor celebrity after reputedly spending more than £200,000 on Britain's most expensive round of drinks at a Liverpool nightclub. He is said to have spent £125,000 on a double nebuchadnezzar bottle of Armand de Brignac champagne as well as further bottles of champagne and vodka.
More from the source: FCA charges 24-year-old currency trader Alex Hope with fraud | Business | The Guardian
AtW's comment - since the Torygraph is now behind the paywall (which I might subscribe to) I won't be posting stuff from it anymore. So from now on it's going to be Daily Mail or The Guardian
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