Six insider dealing suspects arrested in Britain

[Watchman]

Six insider dealing suspects arrested in Britain

LONDON, March 23 — Two senior financial market professionals and a hedge fund employee are among six men arrested in Britain on suspicion of being involved in a sophisticated and long-running insider dealing ring.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said today a squad of 143 officers and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), a special police unit, raided 16 residential and business addresses where they seized documents and computers.

“It is believed that the City professionals passed inside information to traders (either directly or via middlemen) who traded on this information and have made significant profits as a result,” the FSA said in a statement. London’s financial district is known as the City.

The FSA said the two senior professionals worked at “leading City institutions”. But it declined to divulge further details of the investigation, which began in late 2007 as part of the regulator’s attempt to clamp down on insider trading, fraud and poor systems and controls.

The regulator has toughened up its enforcement policy after years of being criticised for not doing enough to stop insider trading. In 2009, it levied a record level of fines and launched its first two successful criminal prosecutions.

Since 2008, it has carried out five sets of arrests on suspicion of insider dealing and secured five prison sentences, including the jailing of Malcolm Calvert, a former partner at Cazenove — known as the Queen’s stockbroker. One of the five sentences was suspended.

The FSA is currently prosecuting three more insider dealing criminal cases.

Last week, the FSA called on banks and other financial institutions to tape traders’ mobile phone conversations. Institutions already have to record fixed-line conversations. — Reuters

 

[tun_dr_m]

That is the reason why LKY recently rushed to UK to do damage control and bribe / beg / suck to seal the scandal from spilling over to his GIC-PAP Inc.

 

[Watchman]

I wanna know who is the 2nd Singaporean got arrested in the French territory of the Comoros islands?

Trying to find Madagascar .


Selling arms ...

 

[Watchman]

Singaporeans face trial in UK
05:55 AM Mar 17, 2010
LONDON - Two Singaporeans are set to face trial in the United Kingdom in connection with an alleged insider trading scheme spanning 10 years involving shares listed on London's Alternative Investment Market.

The first Singaporean, Angie Littlewood, nee Angie Lew Siew Yoon, will be charged on April 6 along with her husband, Christian Littlewood - a former investment banker at Shore Capital Group and Commerzbank's Dresdner Kleinwort unit - with 13 counts of insider trading, according to a statement from the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The second Singaporean, an unnamed 33-year-old man, was arrested in the Comoros Islands, a French territory off the coast of Africa in connection with the case, the financial regulator said.

He will appear before a local court later this week for an extradition hearing. It is the first time the FSA has sought the extradition of a suspect to stand trial for criminal charges in the UK.

Littlewood, who advised corporate finance deals while at Dresdner, and his wife were arrested last April in a series of raids involving 25 FSA staff and 11 police officers.

Between 2000 and 2009, he worked on eight takeover deals worth a total of £3.44 billion ($7.23 billion), according to data provider MergerMarket. His largest transaction was working as an adviser to Bahrain-based investment group Arcapita on the £1.95 billion takeover of Northern Ireland utility Viridian Group.

His lawyer, Mr Jeremy Summers, of Russell, Jones and Walker, said: "Mr Littlewood has cooperated with the investigation from the outset and is disappointed with its conclusion.

"He looks forward to being able to clear his name at trial."

His wife is represented by law firm Hickman and Rose.

The latest charges come just a week after the FSA won an insider-trading case against Malcolm Calvert, an ex-partner at JPMorgan Chase's Cazenove unit.

It was the first time the regulator had successfully tried a finance professional, after previously getting convictions against a former company lawyer and a brokerage intern and his dentist father in two other cases.

Calvert was sentenced to 21 months in jail but is appealing.

Until recently, the UK authorities rarely pursued claims of insider dealing through the criminal courts due to the complexity, cost and rarity of securing a conviction.

The result was a light-touch regime that was much criticised.

The FSA, which is facing abolition in the event of a Conservative election victory, was slammed by the Treasury Select Committee for having "systematically failed in its duty'' to regulate banks.

FSA chief executive Hector Sants said the organisation was now taking an "outcomes-based" approach. It has now put cases of alleged insider dealing high on its list of priorities. Agencies, The Daily Telegraph

 

[johnny333]

That is the reason why LKY recently rushed to UK to do damage control and bribe / beg / suck to seal the scandal from spilling over to his GIC-PAP Inc.

Ehh? Why are taxpayers paying if he's gone there to look after the famiLee business