Jailed insider dealer to pay £3.9m

In June 2019 Walid Choucair, alongside former UBS employee Fabiana Abdel-Malek, was convicted of five offences of insider dealing and sentenced to three years in prison at Southwark Crown Court. 

The case found Abdel-Malek had "abused her position" as a senior compliance officer at the investment bank to pass inside information to her family friend and day trader Choucair between 2013 and 2014. 

The pair appealed their sentencing alleging "insufficient disclosure" by the FCA made their convictions unsafe, but the attempt was quashed by the court in December last year. 

Today’s order demonstrates that insider dealing does not payMark Steward

Choucair has now been ordered to pay £3,893,964 by Southwark Crown Court, more than the approximately £1.4m profit he made from the five insider dealing charges. 

In addition, the court ordered Choucair to pay £403,552 in prosecution costs to the FCA.

The total confiscation order is more than the profit thought to have been made as a result of the offences, because the court is allowed to assume that profits from other trading also represented proceeds of crime.

Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: "This confiscation order means Mr Choucair will have to surrender significant illegal trading profits following his convictions for insider dealing.

"Today’s order demonstrates that insider dealing does not pay."

If Choucair fails to pay the confiscation order by March this year he faces serving five years in default of payment.

Abdel-Malek has already paid the confiscation order of £34,194.53 made against her by Southwark Crown Court in August last year.

As part of the case the FCA also found on occasions it could be shown that Abdel-Malek had inside information on screen whilst exchanging text messages with Choucair and a document relating to one of the deals was found by investigators during a search of her bedroom.

rachel.mortimer@ft.com