Foreign exchange fraudster slapped with 20 more months in prison for failing to cough up
A London foreign-exchange fraudster has had his prison sentence extended after failing to pay a court-ordered penalty.
Alex Hope – dubbed King Popper for his champagne lifestyle – was jailed in January last year for seven years for duping investors out of £5.6m.
His jail term was extended by nearly 20 months today after he failing to pay a court-ordered penalty.
Hope had 603 days added to his sentence by judge Taylor at Southwark Crown Court after repaying just £1,000 of the £66,696 he was ordered to pay back in February, according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
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.
Over 100 investors gave Hope more than £5.5m on the promise that their funds would be used to generate substantial returns by his trading on the foreign exchange markets.
According to the FCA just 12 per cent of the investments were used for trading, the majority of it then lost.
Hope spent a significant proportion of the remainder of the funds on a lavish lifestyle, including gifts to family and friends.
At his trial in 2014 the FCA claimed Hope spent £2m of investors’ money in a 13-month period leading up to his arrest in early 2012, including almost £1m casinos and £500,000 at clubs and bars.