In the UK, the FSA continues to make it clear that it will aggressively pursue insider trading through criminal prosecutions. Today, for the third time in less than a year, the FSA obtained a conviction in an insider trading case. The jury trial that concluded today was against Malcolm Calvert, a former partner at JPMorgan Chase's Cazenove unit. Bloomberg reports that Calvert was convicted of five counts of insider dealing by a London jury, and faces a maximum penalty of seven years in jail when he is sentenced tomorrow.

Prosecutors alleged that Calvert obtained inside information from someone at Cazenove, but they didn’t know who Calvert’s source was. They further alleged that Calvert tipped a friend who made a profit of 280,000 pounds, two-thirds of which he gave to Calvert in cash.

The FSA secured its first criminal conviction for insider dealing in March 2009, in its case against Christopher McQuoid, former general counsel of TTP Communications, and his father-in-law, James Melbourne. In November 2009, the FSA obtained convictions in a second case when Neel Uberoi and his son, Matthew, were found guilty of 12 counts of insider dealing.