On Friday, July 27, the UK's Financial Services Authority scored a major victory when the Southwark Crown Court sentenced six defendants to a combined 16 years in prison for insider trading. Six years in the making, the case is said to be the longest and most complex insider trading case the FSA has pursued to date.

The FSA began looking into suspicious trading related to the case in 2006. They ultimately determined that two brothers--Ali Mustafa and Ersin Mustafa--were learning inside information through their jobs in the print rooms of UBS and JPMorgan Cazenove, and sharing it with the other defendants in the case. The defendants allegedly made a combined profit of over £700,000 on their trading between 2006 and 2008.

Tracey McDermott, acting director of the FSA's Enforcement and Financial Crime Division, called the case a "significant milestone" for the FSA because it demonstrated that the FSA can successfully investigate a complex case involving hundreds of accounts and telephone records, and then explain it to a jury in a way the jury understands to obtain a conviction. According to the Financial Times, the judge handling down the sentences praised the FSA's work in analyzing 200,000 lines of trading over 130 separate accounts, and also reviewing 250,000 emails, 375,000 lines of telephone records and 5,000 texts.

According to the FSA, the convictions in this case are in addition to 14 prior convictions the FSA has obtained in "insider dealing" cases. The FSA is currently prosecuting 4 other individuals for insider dealing.

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