from www.telegragh.co.uk – Thanos Papalexis, a British millionaire property developer who once hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, has been found guilty of ordering the murder of a caretaker who refused to move from a building he wanted to sell.

The 37 year-old son of a Greek shipping magnate and Florida socialite had Charalambos Christodoulides, 55, murdered because he refused to move from the £2 million North London building.

Papalexis, described as a “sleazy” playboy who later moved to the US and became one of the “Palm Beach elite”, thought Mr Christodoulides would ruin his already “perilous financial position”, prosecutors said.

Papalexis, who hosted a fundraiser in late 2007 attended by Bill Clinton on behalf of his wife’s Hlilary failed presidential bid at his rented 6,000 square-foot £2million waterfront mansion in Manalapan, Florida, needed the money to fund another property deal and pay off mounting debts.

Prosecutors said Mr Christodoulides, a “quiet, simple man who lived an isolated existence”, was tied to a chair, beaten, tortured and strangled in March 2000, as Papalexis looked on, his trial heard.

His body, not found for almost a fortnight, had been dumped in a garage inspection pit at the complex in the disused warehouse in Kilburn, north west London.

On the day the caretaker disappeared, the jury heard Papalexis, whose father Emmanuel Papalexis owned Greece-based, Mare Enterprises, exchanged contracts to sell the property for a £300,000 profit after completing the purchase just days earlier.

He wanted to redevelop the warehouse but decided on the back-to-back sale to raise instant funds to fund another ailing property development in Holloway, north London.

The jury heard the businessman allegeldy ordered two of his “henchmen”, failed Kosovan asylum seekers Ylli Xhelo and Robert Baxhija who worked on the Holloway site, to kill his victim after he refused to move out of his flat in the warehouse.

Mr Christodoulides, who was said to enjoy putting on designer suits and venturing into the West End, was the brother-in-law of Michael Lanitis, the previous owner of the building, the Old Bailey heard.

Papalexis, along with Xhelo, 36, unemployed and of no fixed address, and Baxhija, 29, a painter of Palmers Green, north London, denied the “brutal” murder. Papalexis was convicted by the jury and Xhelo and Baxhija were remanded in custody to face a retrial.

Papalexis had told the jury he had “no knowledge or involvement” in the murder while the “henchmen” claimed they businessman had killed the unmarried caretaker, originally from Cyprus.

He will be sentenced on September 30.

“It appears that the victim was condemned to die for no better reason than he was not prepared to leave his home,” prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw, QC, said at the trial opening.

“Papalexis, whilst from a wealthy family, was in a perilous financial position. It was his first major project and the venture had gone disastrously wrong.

“As pressure mounted, Mr Papalexis looked at other ways of raising money to save himself.”

Papalexis, who is being sued for millions of pounds by failed creditors and employees in the US, was extradited from Florida in November 2008 after being arrested while he ate pizza at a local Palm Beach restaurant.

The former chief executive of Florida-based luxury property developing business, Siseman moved to the US just after he committed the murder and became “one of the Palm Beach elite”, according to one source involved in the case.

He entertained some of the world’s most powerful people at lavish parties, including one at the home of late Gianni Versace that was attended by socialite Paris Hilton, former employees said.

He was extradited back to the US after authorities collected evidence including mobile phone calls, fingerprints and DNA from cigarette butts put by all three defendants in the warehouse at the time the victim was killed.

Papalexis also “confessed” to the murder to his high-class prostitute girlfriend, Rebecca DeFalco, [aka Paris] 41, also a former hardcore porn star.

Ms DeFalco, who flew from Florida to give evidence at the trial, claimed Papalexis admitted to the murder in 2004 while they were in a Palm Beach hotel.

She said they met after he answered an advertisement and he started paying her three times a week for sex.

Later, Papalexis claimed he worked for the CIA and British intelligence services and had killed a man – “a nobody” – who had been watching the building.

She came forward and reported the conversation to police after reading about Papalexis’ arrest.