Frederic Marino, 56, a French national was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, and Swiss national, Yoshika Ohmura, 47, three and a half years at Southwark Crown Court yesterday.

The six-week jury trial was held without the two present as they have been on the run in Europe since 2019.

Marino and Ohmura were found guilty by a jury on 16 December for fraud by abuse of position of trust, after a six-week retrial.

At sentencing, the court heard how Frederic Marino, and Aurelien Bessot, who had pleaded guilty at an earlier trial, set up a hedge fund in London called FM Capital Partners Ltd in 2009, with offices in Knightsbridge.