FSA clamps down on insider trading

LONDON - UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is showing an increased focus on insider trading and market abuse. In the past month, it has made at least eight arrests, including that of Malcolm Calvert, an ex-senior employee of city brokerage JP Morgan Cazenove. Calvert has pleaded not guilty to having insider information relating to a number of mergers, takeovers and management buyouts involving Cazenove when buying shares in the companies involved between April 2003 and March 2005.

The FSA is also prosecuting two relatives, Matthew and Neel Uberoi, for using illegal information to buy hundreds of thousands of shares in NeuTec Pharma and Gulf Keystone Petroleum over a four-month period in 2006. In January, the regulator also launched its first insider-trading prosecution against Christopher McQuoid, former general counsel of telecom firm TTP Communications, and his father-in-law James Melbourne, both accused of insider trading concerning telecom company Motorola's takeover of TTP.

The regulator's increased focus on seeking criminal prosecutions for insider trading comes as the number of FSA staff with criminal investigation expertise has risen from 12 to 30, in line with the regulator's objective.