EXCLUSIVE: Alex Hope, the £200,000 bar bill trader, arrested in FSA probe
Alex Hope, the 23 year-old trader who hit the headlines after spending £125,000 on a single bottle of champagne, has been arrested on suspicion of being involved in an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme.
Hope, who claims to be a self made foreign exchange trader, became infamous when he ran up a £125,000 bar bill in one evening at a Liverpool nightclub. Most of this was spent on a single 99lb bottle of champagne.
The story subsequently became front page news after the receipt was leaked to the press.
But yesterday the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said that it had arrested a man in east London “on suspicion of committing offences under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the Fraud Act 2006.”
Hope’s publicist last night confirmed that he had been arrested but said that he denies all allegations. The FSA confirmed no-one has been charged in connection with the investigation and that the arrest is not linked to any other investigations.
His personal website describes him as a “a name to watch out for in the city” and “an expert in the UK economy” who regularly “trades millions”.
It calls him a “talented, charismatic and thoroughly likeable man” who rose from a humble background in South-East London to earn a six-figure basic salary.