Financial Services Authority (FSA) has launched an insider trading prosecution against a corporate partner of US law firm Dorsey & Whitney and a former partner at Will & Emery.
Andrew Rimmington – who is based at Dorsey & Whitney’s London office – and Michael McFall are accused of illegally trading shares on the back of non-public information relating to the 2006 takeover of Neutec Pharma by Swiss conglomerate Novartis, the Times reports.
Sources familiar with the case told the newspaper that Neutec’s former finance director, Peter King, has also been charged.
King and McFall are reportedly accused of insider trading and disclosing non-public information, while Rimmington is charged with insider dealing. All three will appear next month at the City of Westminster magistrates court.
The Times said the prosecution marks a change in the FSA’s pursuit of suspected insider trading, with the regulator moving from “peripheral” figures to those working at the heart of the City.
In March, the FSA secured its first insider dealing conviction, when former solicitor Christopher McQuoid and his father-in-law James Melbourne were found guilty of illegally trading shares in technology firm TTP.
L.D.