The Financial Services Authority has announced the appointment of David Kirk as chief criminal counsel, effective in June. Kirk is currently the director of the Fraud Prosecution Service, a specialist unit of the Crown Prosecution Service.

As part of its strategy of credible deterrence, the FSA has placed great emphasis on bringing criminal actions for cases of insider dealing and market abuse. David will join the enforcement division’s specialist lawyers who focus on criminal prosecutions. He has extensive experience of this type of work, following a career as a partner of city law firms as the Director of Public Prosecutions and most recently as the founding director of the FPS.

In other news, the FSA has also appointed Keith Foggon to the enforcement division as manager of the Digital Evidence Unit. His new role started on March 2. Foggon was formerly head of the Digital Forensics Unit at the Serious Fraud Office and has developed wide-ranging expertise in an area that is important for the FSA’s enforcement case work.