A catering manager turned Ponzi schemer and conman, Canary Wharf based Alex Hope blamed everyone but himself for his demise. Convicted and jailed for seven years alongside the “get-rich-quick” maestro Raj Shastri in January 2015 for running a £5.5 million scam, Hope excused his actions by claiming: “I never set out to defraud people… This trading scheme was set up with good intentions but clearly became overwhelming for myself and got out of control from an administrative point of view”. Hope, who even tried to claim that his lawyer was colluding with the prosecution after learning she had accepted a cereal bar from prosecutor Sarah Clarke, spent most of his ill-gotten gains in casinos and on such extravagances as a £45,987 Midas-sized bottle of Ace of Spades champagne. Full Portion Media, the Fulham based PR firm that represented this publicity loving crook, has now curiously also gone out of business with debts of some £500,000.
