Insider Trading

Bonds, Insider Trading and New Business Secretary

The risks inherent in open-ended property funds have received a lot of media coverage of late - see my blog post of the 5th July which simply said they should be avoided. With many such funds closing so that investors could not take their money out, the risks inherent in providing liquidity to investors when the underlying assets (namely buildings) are highly illiquid have become apparent. Paul Killik had an article published in Saturday's FTMoney (16/7/2016) that made some highly intelligent comments ...

Spreading Rumours About Stocks Is a Criminal Offence

As a follow up to my last blog post on the case of Iraj Parvizi currently being heard in Southwark Crown Court, it has now transpired that he was not aware that spreading false rumours was a criminal offence. As Mark Bentley has commented on the last article, Mr Parvizi's comments on trading in Pacific Media appear to be an example of using “manipulating devices” [MAR 1.7.2] under the FCA Handbook regulations, which explicitly identifies “pump and dump” as a form of ...

Spreading Rumours About Stocks

The Financial Times reported today on the curious case of Iraj Pavazi, a stock market trader currently on trial at Southwark Crown Court. In his defence testimony he apparently admitted that he once spread false rumours about a stock to push up the share price. The article reports that he bought all the shares in the stock of Pacific Media (a "penny" share listed on AIM) that were available and then spread a story that a Malaysian tycoon was going to reverse ...