Financier, 23, Who Ran Up $315,000 Bar Bill Arrested in Trading Probe
A 23-year-old financier who garnered headlines after reportedly running up a bar bill of more than $315,000 last month has been arrested over suspected unauthorized trading.
Alex Hope’s spending during a night out in Liverpool, England, included a near-8 gallon bottle of Armand de Brignac Champagne known as the Ace of Spades that had to be carried to his table by two people. It alone was worth nearly $200,000, “the drinks business” website reported. It said this was a world-record bar bill at a nightclub, beating the previous record of $270,000 by U.S gambler Don Johnson in London last year.
“After just three years in finance, Hope is well known in the industry as a high flyer, and has been tipped by many to become one of the biggest traders in London,” the website said last month.
However, the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority posted a statement on its website on Tuesday saying police had carried out a search of an address in East London “into a suspected unauthorized foreign exchange trading scheme.”
“A 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of committing offenses” under financial and fraud regulations, the FSA said, adding that the man had not been charged “at this stage.”
‘I can’t talk’
A FSA spokesman declined to comment on his identity when contacted by msnbc.com Thursday, but newspapers reportedly widely that it was Hope.
“I can’t talk. I’ve got no comment whatsoever, to be honest with you … I don’t want to comment on anything,” Hope told The Guardian.
