Ex-Logica manager sentenced to 10 months in prison
Last month Ryan Willmott plead guilty to charges of insider trading through which £30,000 of benefit was illegally derived. The sentence for the act: a custodial sentence of ten months as well as fines totally around £30,000. The case highlights further work from the UK Financial Conduct Authority to detect and level robust actions on individuals that threaten the integrity of UK financial markets.
Last month Ryan Willmott, a former financial manager at IT-firm Logica, plead guilty to three counts of insider trading. He was alleged to have unlawfully gained £30,000 from trades around CGI Group’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Logica in 2012.
Sentencing
Sentence was recently passed on the actions of Willmott at the Southwark Crown Court in London. With the Judge, as reported by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), laying a custodial sentence of ten months on Willmott, as well as ordering him to pay £6,122 toward prosecution costs and ordering a confiscation to the tune of £23,240. “The custodial sentence received by Mr. Willmott today is a reminder of the serious consequences for insider dealing,” reflects the FCA’s acting Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, Georgina Philippou. Going on to say that the FCA will “not hesitate to take robust action where individuals threaten the integrity of UK financial markets.”
In the FCA’s statement on the case, Philippou says that Willmott “engaged in insider dealing with no regard for the consequences for himself and others, and with an expectation that he would avoid detection.” According to her, the prosecution sends a clear message to those who are tempted to abuse their position by disclosing or trading on inside information.
Insider dealing
In the wider landscape of probes, the FCA has now secured a total of 27 convictions on insider dealing-related charges. With earlier this month, a case seeing the former treasurer and tax specialist from a large UK supermarket behind bars for a year and owing $330,690 in fines over insider dealing charges. While a former Moore Europe Capital Management trader netted a fine of more than $380,000 and 19 months of cell time.
