In the first operation carried out jointly between the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), 16 addresses have been searched this morning in London, the South East and Oxfordshire in the FSA’s largest ever operation against insider dealing.
Documents and computers have been seized from residential and business premises.
Six men including two senior city professionals at leading city institutions and one city professional at a hedge fund have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in a sophisticated and long-running insider dealing ring.
It is believed that the city professionals passed inside information to traders (either directly or via middlemen) who traded based on this information and have made significant profits as a result.
The operation was carried out by 143 FSA personnel together with officers from SOCA as part of a joint investigation that commenced in late 2007.
No further details can be confirmed at this time.
Background
- This is the fifth set of arrests carried out by the FSA into insider dealing since 2008. It is the first operation carried out jointly with the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
- The FSA has so far secured five sentences of imprisonment (one suspended) in relation to insider dealing: McQuoid and Melbourne in March 2009; Matthew and Neel Uberoi in November 2009 and Malcolm Calvert on 11 March 2010. Details of each case are available on the FSA website.
- The FSA is currently prosecuting three other insider dealing criminal cases: Andrew King, Andrew Rimmington and Michael McFall, with a trial date of 19 April 2010; Christian and Angie Littlewood, with a trial date yet to be fixed; and Neil Rollins, with a trial date yet to be fixed.
- The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, gives the FSA powers to investigate and prosecute insider dealing, defined by The Criminal Justice Act 1993.
- The FSA regulates the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; promoting public understanding of the financial system; securing the appropriate degree of protection for consumers; and fighting financial crime.
- Individuals with information about market abuse can call the FSA’s market abuse hotline on 020 7066 4900.
- The FSA regulates the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; promoting public understanding of the financial system; securing the appropriate degree of protection for consumers; and fighting financial crime.