Former trader jailed for four years for insider dealing

A former futures trader was yesterday sentenced to four years jail after being found guilty of insider dealing.

Richard Joseph, 43, was found guilty of six counts of conspiracy to deal as an insider at Southwark Crown Court. The court heard he was handed confidential and price-sensitive information from two investment banks about prospective takeover bids.

The information was given to him by Ersin Mustafa, a print room manager at JPMorgan Cazenove, who is now believed to be in north Cyprus. Mr Joseph, a self-employed trader, transferred a lot of cash to Mr Mustafa.

The pair used Pay As You Go mobiles and webmail "drop boxes" where confidential documents containing price-sensitive information were put for Mr Joseph to access. He then placed spread bets in the expectation that when the information became public the share price would rise and he would cash in.

When sentencing Mr Joseph, Judge Pegden said: "You knew precisely what you were doing. This was carefully planned and much discussed between you; before, during and after the trades. This was not isolated criminal behaviour."

It was also revealed yesterday that Mr Mustafa was a source of inside information in a high-profile case last summer when six people were jailed for a total of 16 years for an insider trading crime that netted them more than £732,000 in profits.

Meanwhile three men appeared at City of London Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon after being linked to a £40m Ponzi scheme related to electrical contracts in the hotel sector. Jolan Saunders, 36, Michael Strubel, 51, and Spencer Steinberg, 43, were the men charged in relation to the alleged investment fraud.