Mark Lyttleton, a former high-profile BlackRock portfolio manager, pleaded guilty to two counts of insider trading in a London court. He will be sentenced on December 21 this year.
Lyttleton admitted dealing on the basis of insider information he obtained during the course of his employment at BlackRock.
He ran funds including the BlackRock UK Dynamic Fund and the BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha Fund, once managing as much as £2 billion (€2.2 billion) before he left the firm.
In his role in the fundamental equity team he was able to discover and act on inside information either by working on the deals concerning the stocks, or being party to conversations conducted by colleagues.
The two stocks concerned are EnCore Oil, which he traded ahead of news about a proposed takeover, and Cairn Energy, related to news about the discovery of oil in Greenland.
BlackRock released a statement when the Financial Conduct Authority initiated proceedings which said the trades were carried out “for his personal gain, while off our premises, and that neither BlackRock, nor any employee, was under investigation”.
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