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Two banned and fined for 'market abuse'

Published on 19 Apr 2010 under category: legal

Two men have been fined and banned by the financial services watchdog for trading insider information.

A research analyst and an associate with whom he shared insider information have both been fined and banned from working in the financial services by the industry watchdog.

Sameer Patel exchanged confidential information with Robin Chhabra, who used the information to create spread sheets which amounted to around £85,541 in profits for the latter.

Patel has been fined £180,541 and Chhabra received the lesser fine of £95,000 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The two men decided not to contest the fines and the bans before a tribunal was due to hear their appeals on March 31st.

During the investigation, both Patel and Chhabra had taken issue with the FSA's reliance on circumstantial evidence, such as phone-calls and a few trades.

The watchdog had noted several phone conversations between the two as well as monitoring Mr. Patel's "prolific" spread-betting activity.

Chhabra and Patel called for other trades and activity to be taken into account so that a fuller picture could be gained, though both men were then found guilty of market abuse.

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