a salutary lesson for all insider traders. 6 convicted

Ali Mustafa, Pardip Saini, Paresh Shah, Neten Shah, Bijal Shah, and Truptesh Patel have been convicted of offences relating to insider dealing between 2006 and 2008.

Mitesh Shah was acquitted of insider dealing. The defendants will be sentenced on 27 July.

The FSA said it was the longest and most complex prosecution it has ever brought. The case involved examining many hundreds of trading accounts and telephone records, to build up a picture of the timing and degree of contact between those in the insider dealing ring, the regulator said.

The defendants obtained confidential and price-sensitive information from investment banks concerning proposed or forthcoming takeover bids. They then used a large number of accounts to place spread bets ahead of those announcements knowing that when the information became public knowledge the price would rise. The defendants were convicted of making a combined profit of £732,044.59 on trading between 1 May 2006 and 31 May 2008.

It was a sophisticated and complex attempt to deal on inside information over a long period, the FSA said.

The six defendants were convicted of offences of disclosure of inside information and dealing whilst in possession of it in respect of six companies stocks:

Ali Mustafa in respect of Reuters and Vega.

Pardip Saini, Paresh Shah, Bijal Shah and Truptesh Patel in respect of Reuters, Biffa, Premier Oil and Enodis, and Vega. Additionally all except Truptesh Patel were found guilty in respect of Thus. Neten Shah was found guilty in respect of Vega and Thus.

“The defendants were involved in a long running, sophisticated and very profitable scheme,” said Tracey McDermott, acting director of the FSA’s enforcement and financial crime division. “Indeed, several of the defendants derived the majority of their income from the scheme. They took a number of steps to reduce the likelihood of detection and continued, throughout the trial, to deny any wrongdoing. Our success in bringing these individuals to justice is the result of innovative and determined work done across our markets, intelligence and enforcement teams over several years.

“This sort of behaviour poses a significant risk to the integrity of markets and cheats honest investors. We will continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to ensure those who seek to abuse the system have nowhere to hide.

“The conduct of the individuals in this case and the details of the scheme which have now been revealed are important reminders to firms of the need to protect inside information throughout its life so that it cannot be misused.”