On June 2, the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) announced that, after a jury trial at Southwark Crown Court, not guilty verdicts had been entered against a finance director and two lawyers (present or past partners in City of London firms). The charges arose from profits alleged to have been made by the lawyers as a result of their trading in the shares of the finance director’s technology company based on inside information provided by him when the company was taken over in 2006.
This case follows several successful recent criminal prosecutions by the FSA in insider trading cases. Margaret Cole, FSA Director of Enforcement and Financial Crime, stated that the FSA will continue with insider dealing prosecutions. She said that the FSA remains “100 per cent committed to the strategy of achieving credible deterrence. Bringing criminal prosecutions sends a message, loud and clear, that insider dealing is a serious crime and we are not afraid to pursue cases through the criminal courts.”