Six found guilty in FSA’s ‘longest and most complex’ insider dealing case

By PERRY GOURLEY
Published on 24/07/2012 00:00

Six people were found guilty yesterday of taking part in an insider dealing ring that netted over £700,000 after the longest and most complex prosecution brought by the Financial Services Authority.

The six obtained confidential and price-sensitive information from investment banks about proposed or forthcoming takeover bids – including the deal involved Thus and Cable & Wireless – between 2006 and 2008.

They then used a large number of accounts to place spread bets ahead of the announcements knowing that when the information became public knowledge the price would rise.

The deals also include ones involving Reuters, Vega, Premier Oil and Enodis.

FSA acting director of enforcement, Tracey McDermott said: “The defendants were involved in a long-running, sophisticated and very profitable scheme. Indeed, several of the defendants derived the majority of their income from the scheme.”

Meanwhile European regulators and US prosecutors are understood to be close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates.

In Europe, financial regulators are believed to be focusing on a ring of traders from several European banks who allegedly sought to rig benchmark interest rates such as Libor.

Federal prosecutors in Washington have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the suspects to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent.