FCA secures £350,000 confiscation order against convicted insider dealer

Watchdog imposes penalty

Today, Her Honour Judge Korner CMG QC sitting at Southwark Crown Court made a confiscation order in the sum of £350,000 against Damian Clarke, a convicted insider dealer. The order must be paid within 3 months or Mr Clarke will face a further 3 years in prison.  

Mark Steward, the FCA’s Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight said:

“Mr Clarke engaged in a systematic and long-running criminal enterprise in order to make significant illegal gains for himself and his family. As a result, he has lost his liberty, his livelihood and his reputation and must now pay a substantial confiscation order. 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.”

Mr Clarke pleaded guilty to nine counts of insider dealing, contrary to section 52 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 and was sentenced to a total of 2 years’ imprisonment on 13 June 2016.

Between August 2000 and January 2013, Mr Clarke was employed by Schroders Investment Management initially as an assistant fund manager and, from 2006, as an equities trader. In these roles, Mr Clarke received inside information about significant corporate events, mainly anticipated public announcements of mergers and acquisitions. He used this information to place trades using accounts in his own name and those of close family members, in respect of which he had been provided with the account numbers and passwords. The offences were committed over a 9 year period between October 2003 and November 2012.

The total amount to be confiscated from Mr Clarke exceeds the profits generated from the nine counts of insider dealing he pleaded guilty to. As a result of the extent of his offending, he 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 Mr Clarke’s interest in various assets amounted to £350,000 and therefore, a confiscation order was made in that sum.