RegulationMar 20 2015

Insider dealer sentenced to 19 months and fined £100,000

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Insider dealer sentenced to 19 months and fined £100,000

A former senior execution trader and portfolio strategist at Moore Europe Capital Management has been sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to 19 months imprisonment.

In a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority, Julian Rifat was also fined £100,000 for the same offences and ordered to pay costs of £159,402.

In November he pleaded guilty of passing inside information obtained during the course of his employment, to an associate Graeme Shelley, who then traded for their joint benefit.

Mr Shelley, previously a broker at Novum Securities, also pleaded guilty to insider dealing with Mr Rifat and with another associate, Paul Milsom, in March 2014. Mr Milsom, an execution trader at Legal and General Insurance Management, pleaded guilty to insider dealing in March 2013.

Back in March 2010 the then Financial Services Authority and the Serious Organised Crime Agency arrested six people in connection with the UK’s biggest insider dealing investigation, seizing documents and computers from Moore Capital, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas.

Mr Rifat is the third individual to be sentenced for insider dealing offences arising out of Operation Tabernula, which the FCA said was its largest and most complex insider dealing investigation to date.

Judge McCreath said that Mr Rifat had acted “deliberately and dishonestly” but gave him credit for his guilty plea and for his significant personal mitigation.

Georgina Philippou, acting director of enforcement and market oversight at the regulator, said that Mr Rifat’s behaviour exploited financial markets during a particularly challenging time, just as they were taking steps to recover from the 2008 crisis.

“The smooth running of our financial markets requires market professionals to play by the rules – Mr Rifat knew the rules, but he abused them for his own benefit.”

peter.walker@ft.com