News & Events
News & Events
Richard Joseph, 43, was convicted on 11 March 2013 of six counts of trading on confidential and price-sensitive information leaked to him from the print room at JPMorgan Cazenove. He placed spread bets with CMC Markets ahead of a series of deals in 2007 and 2008. He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for an insider-trading scheme that netted him £591,117 in profit. For more information: The FT (12 March 2013): Trader jailed over leaked JPMorgan data The Telegraph (12 March 2013): Financier jailed for insider trading FSA (11 Mar 2013): Individual sentenced to four years for insider dealing
News 12 Mar, 2013
Neil Utley, former CEO of Equity Syndicate Management Limited (“Equity”), has settled regulatory charges brought by the Council of Lloyd’s (“the Council”). Mr Utley has accepted two charges of detrimental conduct in proceedings before the Lloyd’s Enforcement Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) and has undertaken not to apply for a role as a director in the Lloyd’s market for two years and has agreed to pay the Council’s costs. Equity is the Managing Agent of Syndicate 218 (“the Syndicate”), a leading underwriting insurance business at Lloyd’s, specialising in the provision of motor insurance. In October 2011, enforcement proceedings were brought by the Council against Mr Utley and Equity in relation to two charges of detrimental conduct. The charges related to Mr Utley’s…
News 26 Feb, 2013
Settlement was reached today of a substantial investment mis-selling claim involving the marketing of an unregulated Collective Investment Scheme (CIS). Providing an overview, Richard said: “A likely inequality of resources is an understandable concern for individuals wishing to sue a defendant bank under section 150 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The early settlement of this case after Particulars of Claim were served demonstrates the value of intense early work on a claim to ensure it is made as strong as possible. This included obtaining expert evidence on the key issue of suitability and enabled a detailed, strongly pleaded claim which fully referenced the Conduct of Business Sourcebook to be presented to the bank from the outset. The…
News 15 Feb, 2013
Judgment has been handed down in Stone Consultants Ltd v NatWest [2013] EWHC 208 (Ch) in which the claimants alleged that NatWest and one of its bankers was complicit in a £300m Ponzi scheme. Nicholas Medcroft, instructed by Berwin Leighton Paisner, acted for NatWest which successfully defeated claims for conspiracy, dishonest assistance, deceit, unjust enrichment and negligence. After a 4 week trial Mr Justice Sales dismissed all claims against the bank.
News 12 Feb, 2013
A former City worker made almost £693,000 by using insider information to place spread bets on six stocks after paying a print worker £269,000 in return for price sensitive information on takeover deals, a jury has been told. Richard Joseph,43, is accused of six counts of conspiracy to commit insider dealing in the latest criminal prosecution to be brought by the Financial Services Authority. He denies the charges. The trial at Southwark Crown Court was told that Mr Joseph received the sensitive details ahead of public announcements between September 2007 and July 2008 from Ersin Mustafa, who worked in the confidential printroom at investment bank JPMorgan Cazenove. The FSA claims that Mr Mustafa disseminated the information to Mr Joseph by…
News 31 Jan, 2013
John McKendrick is speaking at the 2013 Americas & Caribbean Forum on Financial Crime Prevention in Panama City. The event which will take place at the Hotel Riu Plaza, Panama City, 14 – 18th January 2013 focuses on the need to balance a growing and dynamic economy with a stable and judicious regime for financial crime prevention. John will present an afternoon session on “Understanding the structures used in Financial Crime: trusts, foundations, companies and nominee agreements”. John is also speaking at two panel sessions, one of which will focus on the role of the private sector in combating corruption and the other will focus on boardroom support for measures necessary to prevent financial crime in large organisation.
News 9 Jan, 2013
On 19 September 2012, Michael Patchett-Joyce appeared as co-Counsel before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg at the oral hearing in Case C-285/11, BONIK EOOD. Michael acted alongside Bulgarian Counsel, Advocate Ognyan Minchev. As well as being an important case in its own right on the right of deduction of input VAT, the professional cooperation between Michael and Maître Minchev demonstrates Michael’s proven ability to act as a key part of an international legal team. This was Michael’s fourth appearance before the European Court. His appearances have extended beyond VAT cases (Bond House Systems Limited, Halifax plc, BONIK EOOD) to include judicial review of EU legislation (Alliance for Natural Health). Michael and Maître Minchev came…
News 24 Sep, 2012
The Birmingham Mercantile Court recently refused an application by Barclays for an indefinite stay of proceedings in an interest rate swaps mis-selling case brought against Barclays Bank plc. Graiseley Investments Limited & Ors (the Guardian Care Group) v Barclays is notable as the first case in the UK which pleads Libor misrepresentation (issued in April 2012). Barclays sought to defer pleading a defence to the claim, and pause proceedings generally, until such time as a ‘redress’ scheme, the fact of which has been agreed between the FSA and number of banks including Barclays, had run its course. The precise details of the scheme are as yet unpublished. The scheme is itself unusual for the fact that it is not one…
News 2 Sep, 2012
Michael Bowes QC led the prosecution team in a case brought by the FSA which resulted in six men being convicted of participating in an insider dealing ring that profited from confidential information stolen from the print rooms of two of the City’s biggest investment banks, JP Morgan Cazenove and UBS. In the FSA’s longest and most complex prosecution to date, the men were convicted of insider trading offences between 2006 and 2008 following a four-and-a-half month trial at Southwark Crown Court. The court found they made profits of £732,000. A seventh man was acquitted. The FSA on Monday called the insider dealing ring a “sophisticated and complex attempt to deal on inside information over a long period”. The case…
News 23 Jul, 2012
Robert Rhodes QC was interviewed by Al-Jazeera’s English channel about the Barclays scandal regarding the fixing of Libor and Euribor rates, which resulted in regulatory fines of nearly £300M on the bank.
News 27 Jun, 2012
The judgment in Shah v HSBC Private Bank is now out. After three interlocutory appeals in the Court of Appeal in which the Bank largely succeeded, they have now succeeded completely at trial. Richard Lissack QC and Nicholas Medcroft acted as Leading and Junior Counsel for the Bank. The Claimants put their claims for in excess of $300,000,000 on two bases: first, that the Bank was in breach of contract in failing to process their payment instructions; second, that the Bank was in breach of contract in failing to provide them with information as to the facts that had caused it to fail to effect the first and second transactions, documentary evidence of the same, the name of the authority…
News 15 May, 2012
Outer Temple Chambers silk Michael Bowes QC has taken a leading role on a high-profile insider trading case (R v Mustafa and others). The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has appointed Bowes to lead its prosecution of a group of seven men accused with running a £1m print room spread-bet scam. Southwark Crown Court has been told that the friends and their relatives obtained confidential takeover documents from high-security printing rooms at two of the City’s biggest investment banks. The men are accused of using the information from JPMorgan Cazenove and UBS to bet on the shares of six companies – Reuters, Biffa, Premier Oil Vega, Enodis and Thus – between May 2006 and May 2008.
News 12 Mar, 2012
