We act for one of two individuals prosecuted for insider dealing by the FCA in their only such prosecution since 2016.  The co-defendant  was a former executive in the compliance team at a major international bank.  The prosecution’s case was that our client made £1.4m by trading on inside information received from his co-defendant, which she obtained from the bank’s computer system and communicated to him using a series of pay as you go mobile telephones.  Our client’s defence was that he traded on the basis of market rumours and information obtained from his own network of traders and journalists, but did not know what their sources were, and did not receive inside information from his co-defendant.  A key part of the case was the FCA’s compliance with their duty to disclose material in support of the defence case, against a backdrop of a multi-jurisdictional investigation being conducted by several different regulators into a number of traders who knew and were in frequent contact with one another.  The first trial in 2018 resulted in the jury  being discharged as they could not reach a verdict.  Both defendants were convicted at the re-trial in 2019.

Partner Neil Swift and Senior Associate Rachel Cook continue to act in respect of the appeal and confiscation proceedings.