A former equities trader at asset manager Schroders, who was convicted of insider dealing in 2016, is to have £350,000 (€391,200) of assets confiscated.
Damian Clarke, who was sentenced to two years imprisonment after pleading guilty on nine counts of insider dealing in June 2016, has to pay the amount within three months, else face a further three years in jail.
Clarke engaged in a “systematic and long-running criminal enterprise” in order to make significant illegal gains for himself and his family, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said yesterday following the confiscation order, which was made by Southwark Crown Court in London.
Schroders itself was not investigated and has said there was no harm to client funds.
The FCA said Clarke’s activities took place between October 2003 and November 2012 when he was employed by Schroders Investment Management initially as an assistant fund manager and, from 2006, as an equities trader.
Clarke had access to inside information about significant corporate events, such as mergers and acquisitions.
The total amount to be confiscated from Clarke exceeds the profits generated from the nine counts of insider dealing he pleaded guilty to.
The FCA said that as a result of the extent of his offending, Clarke is deemed to have a criminal lifestyle, which enables the court to assume that the profits made from other non-indicted trading within a defined period also represent the proceeds of crime.
In total, the defendant derived a benefit of £719,658.69 from his criminal conduct.
It was agreed that the value of Clarke’s interest in various assets amounted to £350,000 and therefore, a confiscation order was made in that sum.
Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “The message should now be clear that insider dealers are increasingly likely to be caught and will be made to fully account for their misconduct.”
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