Insider trading: Indian-origin men appear before UK court

Seven men of Indian-origin, under legal net in connection with a 2.5 million pound insider trading case, on Sunday appeared in a court to face charges brought about by Britain`s financial regulator.

London: Seven men of Indian-origin, under
legal net in connection with a 2.5 million pound insider
trading case, on Sunday appeared in a court to face charges
brought about by Britain`s financial regulator.

The men, aged between 29 and 47, who appeared in a London
magistrates court, allegedly traded on confidential
information gleaned from the London printers of Swiss bank UBS
and the brokerage firm Cazenove.

They are said to have traded in 12 firms listed on the
London markets over a period of two years, including Premier
Oil and the technology firm Misys, making themselves 2.5
million pounds.

Mitesh Shah, Neten Shah, Paresh Shah, Bijal Shah,
Truptesh Patel, Ali Mustafa and Pardip Saini were first
arrested in July last year, following a series of raids
conducted by 40 FSA staff and police at addresses in London
and the south-east.

The case was committed to crown court for a preliminary
hearing on 22 April. The men have been placed on bail and
forced to surrender their passports.

The FSA is seeking to extradite an eighth man from India,
officials said.

The arrests were the result of an investigation lasting
21 months, and included the forensic examination of 75
electronic devices containing more than 200,000 files, 130
individual trading accounts, analysing more than 150,000
entries of publicly available information and taking more than
250 witness statements, the FSA said.

The Times daily had reported earlier this month that "two
of those charged worked at leading investment banks -- JP
Morgan Cazenove and UBS -- at the time of the alleged insider
trading."

The charges brought against the seven relate to
conspiring together to deal as an insider in price affected
securities, while Mitesh Shah was also separately charged with
money laundering.

The alleged illegal trades in Reuters Group Plc stocks
were carried out by the accused between January one, 2007 and
May 31, 2007, in Misys Plc between May one, 2006 and October
31, 2006, the regulator said.

PTI

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