The UK Financial Services Authority has fined an analyst, now dismissed from the investment bank MF Global, for a hasty and suggestive message to clients that caused a big movement in the price of the shares of Enterprise Inns. Christopher Gower sent a "Hot Off The Press" alert via an instant messaging service to the bank's clients about a meeting he had had with the CEO of a competitor, Punch Taverns. The report sounded like inside information. It wasn't. It was just public information repeated and definitely reheated. The FSA said: "This instant message did not accurately reflect the conversation Gower had had. It gave the impression of containing inside information although, in fact, Gower had no such information. The message was misleading and inaccurate…. Gower gave no apparent consideration to the consequences to the market of his message. His conduct was careless and fell below proper standards of conduct in the circumstances." It fined him £50,000. The decision is one of a seeming flood of market abuse-related cases. An investment banker and his wife pleaded guilty to insider trading and a string of people were banned from working in financial services or ordered to cease trading since the start of the year. There was a time when these sorts of cases seemed hard to prove. Is the information better, or just the attitude of the enforcers?
Source document: The FSA statement gives further details of the case in a 12-page pdf file.
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