Founder of whisky investment firm Hackstons tied to notorious ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ wine scam
A high-flying salesman who made millions during his time at a business that was subsequently exposed as a notorious wine scam is now running a West End whisky investment firm having changed his name, Morning Wire can reveal.
Alphie Valentine, 41, is the co-founder and director of Hackstons, whose flagship store opened in Knightsbridge in September.
Hackstons describes itself as a luxury asset brokerage that manages investments in casks of whisky, wine and spirits. Clients pay upfront in the hope that the barrels, which are stored in HMRC bonded warehouses, mature over time and deliver returns.
But investing in the cask whisky and wine business can be fraught with risk given it is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Hundreds of scams have been closed down over the last decade.
Whisky investment
Morning Wire understands Hackstons’ boss Valentine was a key player at Bordeaux Fine Wines (BFW), which liquidators subsequently labelled a ponzi scheme that conned investors out of at least £9.3m by selling wine it did not actually own.
Bordeaux’s mastermind, Kenneth Gundlach, led the operation until 2014 from a series of addresses in Surrey, Bromley and Croydon and hit the headlines amid revelations victims’ money was spent on private jets, race horses, lavish office parties and a two-day company pep-talk from the convicted fraudster Jordan Belfort, otherwise known as the Wolf of Wall Street.
It ended dramatically after an Insolvency Service investigation led to the firms’ closure and Gundlach receiving a maximum 15-year ban from company boardrooms.
Morning Wire has established Valentine set up five companies at either the same address or within a 10 to 15 minute walk of the various locations used by Bordeaux Fine Wines Limited during the con. One company was based at two identical addresses to BFW.
Valentine defaulted on tax worth more than £250,000 between April 2010 and April 2013, according to HMRC’s public record of deliberate tax defaulters.
Records show he changed his name from Deji Ethan Brooke Uthman in February 2015, a few weeks after Gundlach received his 15-year directorship ban.
Watches, Ferraris and Harley Davidsons
In recent years, Hackstons’ founder has cultivated a significant following as a life coach and sales adviser, appearing on multiple Youtube podcasts and even a BBC radio programme.
He repeatedly flaunts the vast sums he made at an unnamed Croydon-based investment sales firm that eventually collapsed through “no fault of his own,” resulting in his bankruptcy.
Valentine drew out a £5,000 loan to help set up the company in its early days, alongside the director.
He claims within three years, at the age of 27, he was bringing in £100,000 per month to his personal bank account, money which enabled him to buy expensive watches, Harley Davidsons and a black Ferrari.
“I was spending a lot of money, I was doing a lot of wild f***ing things.
“Rolling around in Ferraris, spent 60 bags putting diamonds on my car keys, sent 23 people away on holiday which cost £160,000, sent my Mrs and her friends to Miami, I went to Marbella before it was cool, shut it down and spent 20 grand – loads of madnesses.”
The business eventually failed in 2013, the same year BFW was brought into receivership.
Valentine did not respond to multiple requests for clarification on the nature of his involvement with BFW, nor how much he earned during his time at the company.
None of the five suspect firms he set up during the period made anywhere close to £100,000 per month, if they filed accounts at all.
A visit from the Wolf of Wall Street
The Bordeaux Fine Wines scandal made headlines amid surreal revelations about how scammed investors’ money was spent.
The Insolvency Service found hundreds of thousands was spent on everything from private jet flights to expensive cars and even £170,000 on a “well-known bespoke jeweller.”
Perhaps most notorious was a £50,000 two-day motivational seminar for company staff, delivered by none other than the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort. Liquidators received claims from investors and creditors totalling nearly £60m by the end.
It attracted such attention that online forums were set up, containing hundreds of comments from furious victims, ex-employees and local residents.
One poster, who claimed to know a former employee, alleged one of BFW’s “top closers’” was called ‘Alfie’ and drove a black Ferrari with the registration ‘Til I Bus.’ The same Ferrari is pictured in one of Valentine’s Youtube videos.
Several posts allege Deji Uthman, Alphie’s previous name, was a key player at Bordeaux Fine Wines.
The salesmen operated out of a flat in Croydon, cold-calling victims with fake names and encouraging them to buy wine at up to three times its true value.
One source with close knowledge of its operations said Gundlach encouraged them to “dress the part, go buy a copy of the FT and develop a persona for themselves so that they would be able to speak to the affluent.”
Many of Valentine’s companies were located at Lower Addiscombe, Croydon, which is just around the corner from where media reports placed Bordeaux’s Croydon office.
Alphie’s Monopoly Limited temporarily held Bordeaux Fine Wines’ exact trading address as listed by the Insolvency Service on the 3rd Floor of Lansdowne Road in Croydon.
It is unclear to what extent whisky investment firm Hackstons is aware of its co-founder’s involvement in an earlier scam, or the nature of his previous run-in with HMRC.
Valentine only appeared as a director of Hackstons on Companies House in April 2024 and was initially described as “Head of Operations,” despite founding the firm in 2021.
There is no suggestion Hackstons operates in the same way as Bordeaux Fine Wines, but its founder’s past raises questions about transparency in an industry already under the microscope.
Hackstons did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Morning Wire.