LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - Seven men charged with running an insider trading ring with information gleaned from the London printers of Swiss bank UBS AG and UK brokerage Cazenove will appear in a British court on Wednesday.
Mitesh Shah, Neten Shah, Paresh Shah, Bijal Shah, Truptesh Patel, Ali Mustafa and Pardip Saini are alleged to have used confidential information to trade in 12 UK-listed firms over two years, including in media group Reuters during its 2007 takeover by Thomson Corp of Canada.
It is the largest insider dealing racket to be brought before court by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which has grabbed the headlines over the last month with high-profile arrests as it cracks down on market abuse.
The hearing will be largely procedural, and the men are only expected to be asked to give their names, addresses and dates of birth before the case is referred to a higher court.
The FSA, which is seeking the extradition of an eighth suspect linked to the so-called 'printer' ring, last month charged the men with 13 counts of insider dealing that it says unlawfully netted them 2.5 million pounds ($3.84 million).
Mitesh Shah has also been charged with placing spread bets to launder proceeds.
The regulator has brought three successful criminal cases against insider dealers to date. Its most high-profile victory was against Malcolm 'Streaky' Calvert, a former partner at Cazenove, who was jailed for 21 months.
That conviction was closely followed by last month's dramatic arrests of seven insider dealing suspects, including a managing director at Deutsche Bank, the head of sales trading at Exane, part-owned by France's BNP Paribas, and a London-based trader at U.S. hedge fund Moore Capital.
($1=.6511 Pound)
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Will Waterman) Keywords: BRITAIN INSIDERTRADING/PRINTERS (kirstin.ridley@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 7987; Reuters Messaging: kirstin.ridley.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
Mitesh Shah, Neten Shah, Paresh Shah, Bijal Shah, Truptesh Patel, Ali Mustafa and Pardip Saini are alleged to have used confidential information to trade in 12 UK-listed firms over two years, including in media group Reuters during its 2007 takeover by Thomson Corp of Canada.
It is the largest insider dealing racket to be brought before court by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which has grabbed the headlines over the last month with high-profile arrests as it cracks down on market abuse.
The hearing will be largely procedural, and the men are only expected to be asked to give their names, addresses and dates of birth before the case is referred to a higher court.
The FSA, which is seeking the extradition of an eighth suspect linked to the so-called 'printer' ring, last month charged the men with 13 counts of insider dealing that it says unlawfully netted them 2.5 million pounds ($3.84 million).
Mitesh Shah has also been charged with placing spread bets to launder proceeds.
The regulator has brought three successful criminal cases against insider dealers to date. Its most high-profile victory was against Malcolm 'Streaky' Calvert, a former partner at Cazenove, who was jailed for 21 months.
That conviction was closely followed by last month's dramatic arrests of seven insider dealing suspects, including a managing director at Deutsche Bank, the head of sales trading at Exane, part-owned by France's BNP Paribas, and a London-based trader at U.S. hedge fund Moore Capital.
($1=.6511 Pound)
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Will Waterman) Keywords: BRITAIN INSIDERTRADING/PRINTERS (kirstin.ridley@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 7987; Reuters Messaging: kirstin.ridley.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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