In a case brought by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Paul Milsom, a senior equities trader, has today been sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to 2 years imprisonment for disclosing inside information between October 2008 and March 2010. A confiscation order was also made in the sum of £245,000.
During the relevant period Milsom was an FSA approved person employed by Legal and General Investment Management (Holdings) Ltd (LGIM). Milsom disclosed inside information relating to forthcoming transactions in securities by LGIM.
When sentencing, His Honour Judge Pegden indicated that he had given Milsom full credit for pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity and extra credit for entering into a plea agreement with the FSA.
Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement, said:
“This case involved serious offending over a number of years, conducted in a sophisticated way using deliberate techniques to avoid detection. Milsom was an approved person who was entrusted by his employer with sensitive and valuable information. He betrayed that trust by exploiting the information for his own benefit.
“Those who work within the industry should be the custodians of its reputation. Milsom’s approach could not have been further from that. His personal greed will have cost him his reputation, his career and his liberty. Those who think there is easy money to be made from insider dealing should think again.”
The FSA makes no criticism of LGIM.
Notes for editors
- The FSA has so far secured 21 further convictions in relation to insider dealing: Christopher McQuoid and James William Melbourne in March 2009; Matthew and Neel Uberoi in November 2009, Malcolm Calvert on 11 March 2010, Anjam Ahmad on 22 June 2010, Neil Rollins on 21 January 2011, Christian Littlewood and Angie Littlewood on 8 October 2010 and Helmy Omar Sa'aid on 10 January 2011 and Rupinder Sidhu on 15 December, and James and Miranda Sanders together with another individual in May 2012 and Ali Mustafa, Pardip Saini, Paresh Shah, Neten Shah, Bijal Shah and Truptesh Patel on 27 July 2012 and Thomas Ammann on the 13 December.
- The FSA is currently prosecuting 6 other individuals for insider dealing:
Name |
Trial date |
|
Richard Joseph |
Commenced 30 January 2013 |
|
Martyn Dogson |
Trial date to be confirmed |
|
Andrew Hind |
Trial date to be confirmed |
|
Benjamin Anderson |
Trial date to be confirmed |
|
Iraj Parvizi |
Trial date to be confirmed |
|
Richard Baldwin |
Trial date to be confirmed |
- The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 gives the FSA powers to investigate and prosecute insider dealing, defined by The Criminal Justice Act 1993.
- Individuals with information about market abuse can call the FSA’s market abuse hotline on 020 7066 4900.
- The FSA regulates the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; securing the appropriate degree of protection for consumers; fighting financial crime; and contributing to the protection and enhancement of the stability of the UK financial system.
- The FSA will be replaced by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority in 2013. The Financial Services Bill[1] currently undergoing parliamentary scrutiny is expected to receive Royal Assent by the end of 2012.