FIN.

FCA announces insider dealing imprisonment for former compliance officer

A former compliance officer at UBS has been sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment for insider dealing, following a prosecution brought by FCA.  Fabiana Abdel-Malik used her position to acquire confidential and valuable information from her employer and pass it to a family friend, Walid Choucair, who used it to trade and make profits of around £1.4m. Ms Abdel-Malik was well aware of the restrictions on inside information, and used methods such as an unregistered pay-as-you-go device identical to her work mobile device. She also lied to FCA when it started to investigate.

The court held that although Mr Choucair had corrupted Ms Abel-Malik, and she had not received any benefit approaching his, nevertheless her breaches were a gross breach of trust and without them the trading could not have happened.  As a result, the same sentence was appropriate for both defendants.

Emma Radmore