Former Wizz Air exec fined for breaching share trading laws
A former Wizz Air executive has been fined £125,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for trading company shares when City rules barred him from doing so.
András Sebők, the budget carrier’s former chief supply officer, fell foul of FCA regulations by illicitly trading London-listed Wizz Air shares during the month-long period leading up to the firm’s financial results announcements.
The FCA found that, between April 2019 and November 2020, Sebők made 115 trades in Wizz Air stocks, worth over £4m.
The regulator also sanctioned Sebők – who was promoted to central chief operations officer in May 2021 after the period of illicit trading examined by the FCA – for failing to notify it of his personal trades of Wizz’s shares within the requisite three-day period.
In a statement, the FCA said that the ruling, which was reduced by 30 per cent after Sebők agreed to settle the matter, represented the first time it had fined a ‘person discharging managerial responsibility’ (PDMR) for trading company shares during closed periods.
It was also just the second time it had fined a PDMR for failing to disclose its personal trades within the 72-hour deadline.
Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Trust and transparency are vital to keeping our markets clean. Senior executives, like Mr Sebők, must report their trading and comply with the restrictions on trading during closed periods or they risk undermining the integrity of the market.”
Sebők left Wizz Air in December 2021 after an 18-year career at the budget airline. He held positions spanning head of corporate finance, head of financial planning and controlling and head of treasury and controlling in the run-up to the 19-month period of trading for which the financial watchdog fined him.
He was the firm’s chief supply chain officer between 2019 and November 2020.
The FCA ruling comes just a day after Wizz Air was wrapped by the advertising watchdog for for misleading consumers over a paid-for Google ad. The ad invited consumers to “fly Wizz Air – one of the greenest choices of travel”, which Advertising Standards Authority ruled had not made clear the basis of the claim.
A spokeswoman for Wizz Air said: “Wizz Air maintains robust systems and controls in relation to employee share dealings, including a clear PDMR share dealing policy, which was breached in this case. Mr Sebők’s employment was terminated with immediate effect as soon as the Company was made aware in 2021 and we have cooperated fully with the FCA enquiry.”
András Sebők has not responded to a request for comment.