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Billion pound fund given £1,000 deterrent

Published on 22 Feb 2010 under category: legal

An investment firm has been fined £1,000 for acquiring an authorised company before it received approval from the standards body.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined Semparian PPP Investment Partners Limited Partnership for taking a "calcuated risk" that the FSA would not prosecute it, if it went ahead to purchase the company.

Semperian apparently contacted the FSA in December 2008 but completed the deal three weeks later, without waiting for consent.

The maximum fine was not imposed because the firm pleaded guilty to the offence and the offence had not impacted on consumers.

Director of the body's enforcement and financial crime division, Margaret Cole, said: "Today's result is a clear warning to other potential controllers that the FSA will prosecute change in control offences in appropriate cases."

Laws were changed in March of 2009 to enable courts to impose unlimited fines on firms that commit control offences.

This is only the second instance of a firm being penalised for a control offence since the new law came into place, though Semperian was not subject to the new rules because its offence was committed before the legislation took force.

The billion pound property fund is chaired by former Ofcom chairman, Lord Currie.

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