Hedgie fined £50k by FSA
A FORMER hedge fund manager was fined £50,000 for insider trading but escaped jail yesterday after agreeing to help the City’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) with its investigation into an unnamed associate.
Anjam Ahmad, who worked for London-based AKO Capital until last September, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years and given 300 hours of community work, as well as being fined, said the FSA, which has stepped up its crackdown on market abuse this year.
Ahmad escaped jail after agreeing to help the FSA in a probe into an associate after the watchdog for the first time used new powers granted to it in April.
“It is only because of the quite exceptional mitigating factors such as the swift and timely admissions to the FSA… that you [were saved] from immediate imprisonment today,” said judge Geoffrey Rivlin.
Ahmad had used information about upcoming trades by AKO to plan, with his associate, trades in at least 19 securities, the FSA said.
Separately, Ahmad also agreed to pay to the FSA £131,000 of profits he had made from directing trades towards one broker in exchange for cash, gift vouchers, gold, flights and hotel bookings.
The FSA has moved speedily to prosecute. In similar cases, it has taken a year or more to bring charges after arresting suspects. But some lawyers noted this could be more down to how unsophisticated the case was rather than an attempt by the FSA to prove its mettle.