Guilty, City boss who groped staff at wild Wolf of Wall St parties
A CITY boss who sexually assaulted two women during wild Wolf of Wall Street-style office parties was facing jail last night.
Anthony Constantinou, 35, groped and kissed one of his victims after plying her with vodka during a bash at his Square Mile headquarters to celebrate making a £1million profit on the trading floor.
And he force-fed another woman eye-wateringly hot wasabi from a £500 sushi platter during after-work drinks before pinning her against a wall ‘like a piece of meat’ and kissing her.
The sexual predator, who was regularly seen sipping from a tumbler in his office, told victims: ‘You can’t say no to a Greek man’, and he boasted to one victim that he paid £100,000 to female staff who ‘do everything I want’.
The married boss of financial group Capital World Markets now faces jail after being convicted of sex attacks on two women following a retrial at the Old Bailey.
The court heard about the playboy’s after-work parties where he threw wads of cash at workers, poured vodka down his employees’ throats and smashed crystal flutes as he downed champagne.
His antics were compared to the hedonistic stockbrokers in the Hollywood blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio by one female colleague, who said: ‘It was literally like that film Wolf of Wall Street.’
Constantinou, whose offices were on the 21st floor of the City of London’s Heron Tower, had rubbed shoulders with royalty, Premier League footballers and racing drivers. He had proudly introduced his team to Princess Anne at the London Boat Show where his firm had been a sponsor. But the court heard that in October 2014, Constantinou pushed a woman up against the frosted glass of the reception area and went on to grope and kiss her against her will.
The victim, who is in her 20s, had earlier been plied with vodka at one of Constantinou’s weekly alcohol-fuelled parties in his office, before he started kissing her despite her protestations that he had recently married.
Just days before the attack Constantinou had thrown a £2,000 bundle of notes at the same woman as a ‘bonus’. Then in February last year, he assaulted another woman duridly ing drinks after a business meeting. He threw her mobile phone against a wall and told her: ‘Don’t answer phones in my meeting.’
Later that night, he picked up a large chunk of wasabi paste and shoved it in her mouth, remarking to colleagues that she had a ‘cracking a*** and t***’.
The woman immediately left the room but was followed by Constantinou, who pinned her against a partition and assaulted her in what she described as a ‘disgusting’ manner, jurors were told.
Constantinou was convicted of two sexual assaults after a three-week trial at the Old Bailey last month, but the verdict can now be reported after prosecutors announced they would not pursue a retrial over a third alleged attack.
Born into a life of privilege as the youngest son of a fashion tycoon, Constantinou’s childhood was shattered when his father Aristos was gunned down in his mansion in Hampstead, north London, in 1985 when he was just three.
The unsolved case was dubbed the ‘silCooke ver bullets murder’ after Aristos Constantinou was shot six times at close range with nickel-jacketed bullets shortly after returning home to his seven-bedroom villa with his wife Elena, 14 years his junior, after a New Year’s Eve party.
At the Old Bailey, Constantinou, who lives with his wife in an £8million Hampstead home, had claimed the women made up the allegations to get a six-figure payout, but the jury found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault.
Constantinou wept as the guilty verdicts were delivered. His barrister Miranda Moore QC said ‘effectively they are two kisses’, but Judge Nicholas
‘You can’t say no to a Greek man’
QC shot back: ‘It’s more serious than that – it is sexual assault on two different women in circumstances where there’s significant aggravation.’
He will be sentenced on November 11.