CWM pension scammer faces jail after losing final appeal against fraud conviction

Fraudster Jody Smart has lost her final appeal against a four-year prison sentence after Spain’s top court rejected her plea.

Spain’s Supreme Court ruled her appeal inadmissible with judges refusing to consider her arguments. Smart was also ordered to cover the costs for a second time as well as paying the compensation she already owes her victims, The Olive Press reports.

Her last chance is to ask Spain’s Constitutional Court to examine whether her rights were breached during the original trial.

Smart, sole director of collapsed Continental Wealth Management (CWM), was convicted in April 2025 for her part in the €35m Continental Wealth Management (CWM) pension scandal, which saw hundreds of expats in Spain lose the majority of their pension savings.

Smart was found to have deliberately defrauded two of her victims out of a combined €370,000.

Alicante-based CWM, which folded in 2017, was not regulated to provide investment advice, but its executives convinced hundreds of expats to transfer their life savings into high-risk structured notes.

Smart was ordered to return the €370,00 to her victims and serve three years and six months in jail, but she has appealed the verdict twice, losing both times.