A crooked financier who used secrets stolen from two major investment banks to cash in on takeover bids has been ordered to repay £2.1m or face an extra six years jail.
A crooked financier who used secrets stolen from two major investment banks to cash in on takeover bids has been ordered to repay £2.1m or face an extra six years jail.
Southwark Crown Court heard that Richard Joseph’s group of insider dealers learned about takeover bids and mergers involving major firms from their sources in the print rooms of UBS and JP Morgan Cazenove.
Armed with the price-sensitive details, the gang made hundreds of thousands of pounds trading in six stocks, including Reuters Group and Biffa PLC.
Joseph, 45, netted a fortune by trading on secrets leaked to him by a print room worker at a top bank and was jailed for four years in 2013.
Following a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC ruled his total benefit to be £2,170,191 and ordered him to repay the total or face an extra six years jail.
He was handed secret documents stolen from JP Morgan Cazenove print room worker Ersin Mustafa in return for cash, the court was told.
Joseph denied insider dealing, but was convicted after a trial following a ‘meticulous and exhaustive’ FSA inquiry.
Print room workers Ali Mustafa, 33, and Paresh Shah, 50, were each jailed for three-and-a-half years following a trial at Southwark Crown Court.
On Tuesday 16 September, the FCA issued a £3.2m confiscation order against the group, which includes the £2.1m against Joseph.
Mustafa has been ordered to pay back £9,950 within six months or serve a further six months in jail.
Saini was told to repay £464,564.91 within six months or face five years inside.
Co-conspirators Bijal Shah, 40, and Truptesh Patel, 51, were both jailed for two years, while Neten Shah, 52, was sent to prison for 18 months.
Bijal Shah must pay £137,995 within six months or serve a further two years in prison.
Patel must pay £4,010.80 within six months or face a three-month default term, and Neten Shah must pay £125, 726.13 within 28 days or face another two years in prison.
The corrupt traders were said to have used £120,000 a year broker Mitesh Shah, head of the Asian desk at Finspreads, which later changed its name to City Index Limited, to place the bets.
Meanwhile, at the Old Bailey, three NatWest bankers accused of plundering more than £320,000 from customers’ accounts appeared in court.
Bank manager Glenn Mason, 56, and two of his staff – Julie Jeffrey, 50, and James Cato, 35 –are accused of raiding accounts at the Biggin Hill branch in Kent.
All three spoke only to confirm their names and are due back in court on 22 September. No pleas have been entered.
