Brother and sister jailed over insider trading
Redinel Korfuzi, 38, a former research analyst at the asset management firm, was accused of using confidential information to which he had access in his City job to trade using accounts held by his sister Oerta Korfuzi, 36, and two other people.
Last month, the Albanian siblings were convicted of conspiracy to commit insider dealing and money laundering between December 2019 and March 2021.
The Financial Conduct Authority, which prosecuted the case, said the pair had used Korfuzi's access to inside information to 'rig the system to satisfy their greed'.
Sentencing them on Friday at Southwark crown court, Judge Alexander Milne said the case 'has elements akin to a Greek tragedy where an individual of some standing is brought crashing down by a fatal flaw . . . You both thought of yourselves as being too clever to be caught out.'
The Korfuzis used confidential information on 13 companies including Daimler, Jet2 and THG to make close to £1 million. The insider trading took place at the London flat the siblings shared, taking advantage of working from home after pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020 to co-ordinate the scheme.
They used 'short' trades, the term for betting on a share price falling, investing after Korfuzi had obtained inside information such as emails from companies gauging investor interest on plans to raise equity or to sell large blocks of shares owned by existing shareholders, the City regulator said.
Korfuzi traded in the shares of those companies on a number of accounts, including those operated by his sister. The FCA detected suspicious activity and the siblings were arrested in March 2021.
FCA investigators also uncovered a separate international money laundering operation. It said prosecutors were unable to identify the source of the crime from which the cash derived but the laundering involved deposits made into accounts controlled or operated by the siblings from the UK to Albania.
Milne said the scam was 'not a victimless fraud' as insider trading 'diminishes public trust in the integrity of the market'.
Two other defendants, Korfuzi's personal trainer Rogerio de Aquino and de Aquino's partner Dema Almeziad, whose accounts were used to execute trades, were cleared of all charges at the trial last month. Korfuzi persuaded the couple to open trading accounts when the personal trainer's business was struggling during the Covid-19 crisis.
After they were acquitted last month, Almeziad's lawyer Roger Sahota said: 'There was no evidence that Ms Almeziad knew anything about insider dealing and it is wrong to expect ordinary people to understand or spot complex financial conduct that even professionals struggle with.'
Janus Henderson, which manages roughly $380 billion in assets, was not involved in the criminal case or accused of any wrongdoing.
The successful prosecution of the Korfuzis follows other positive results for the FCA in court recently, including the Upper Tribunal upholding its ban on Jes Staley, the former Barclays boss.
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