Could the US authorities learn from the FSA's insider dealing successes?
In an about turn the FSA (Financial Services Authority) is becoming something of a leading light in the area of insider trading and market abuse investigations. Indeed only a few years ago it was the US authorities which were by far and away the more authoritative bodies on these subjects, having had more success than the FSA in bringing prosecutions and attempting to reduce the impact which these activities have in the market place. However, has the FSA now overtaken the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) with regards to successful insider dealing prosecutions?
There is no doubt that both parties have been investing significant time and money into monitoring suspected market abuse and insider trading. However, despite the fact that the US authorities have brought a number of alleged insider traders to court there have been very few successful prosecutions with juries often bamboozled by the technical nature of the evidence presented. So why is it that the FSA has over the last year secured more prosecutions than the SEC?
In simple terms it looks as though the FSA has improved the evidence which it has been able to present to the courts, something which was reflected by yesterday's alleged insider trading arrests from an investigation which has been ongoing over two years. Hopefully this is the start of a prolonged attack on market abuse which will always be around but hopefully under more control than ever before in the future.
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