As discussed here, the October trial in the UK of Christina Weckwerth and Dr. Jessica Mang surely had its share of awkwardness. The two women were both girlfriends of former Mizuho International Plc investment banker Thomas Ammann -- neither of whom knew about the other -- who were separately persuaded by Ammann to engage in insider trading based on Ammann's inside information and to share half of the money with Ammann. 

After Weckworth and Mang traded, and made profits of £900,000 and £26,000, respectively, the UK's FSA brought criminal actions against both women. Ammann had previously pleaded guilty to charges of insider trading and to the odd-sounding charge of "encouraging insider trading." Both women argued that they did not know they were trading illegally, and in mid-November 2012 both were cleared of all charges by a jury.

Although the two women were callously duped by Ammann into (a) thinking they were his exclusive girlfriend, and (b) engaging in trades at his request that greatly benefited Ammann but got them hauled into criminal court, Ammann's bad karma seems to have come right back at him with equal force. Consider:

While Ammann's two girlfriends were acquitted, Ammann pleaded guilty to the insider trading charges back in June 2012 and this week was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison; 

Ammann's girlfriends get to keep all of their profits, but the several hundred thousand pounds that Ammann made from the girlfriends' trades will now be subject to confiscation and cost orders;

Embarrassing articles continue to come out in the UK press slamming Ammann. In a Daily Mail article last month with the headline, "Toupee-wearing banker who seduced FOUR women during £2 million City insider dealing scam faces jail as lovers are cleared by jury," it was revealed that

Ammann wears a toupee (I'm not sure why that was relevant, but the British press seemed to think it was headline-worthy....)

When police went to arrest the already "two-timing" Ammann in his London home he was reportedly in bed with a third woman.

Ammann had a relationship with a fourth woman who "is understood to have given birth to their baby daughter at the start of the year," but then fled to China "when the true extent of his murky dealings emerged."

What goes around comes around!

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