Working from home: Analyst on trial for £1m insider trading scheme
A former Janus Henderson analyst used working from home to make nearly £1m from insider trading, a court has heard.
Redinel Korfuzi was on trial yesterday with his sister Oerta Korfuzi and two other alleged members of a cartel that allegedly made inside dealings on shares throughout the first two years of the pandemic.
Prosecutors told the court that Korfuzi learned about upcoming fundraising from companies through his firm, with these processes governed by stringent rules to prevent insider trading.
However, the defendant instead allegedly profited from the knowledge through trading with the accounts of his accomplices.
11 companies were allegedly targeted as part of the scheme, including shares in Jet2, Hargreaves Lansdown, and Daimler.
“The defendants took advantage of the cloak afforded by national lock down restrictions … to take the opportunity to execute, while some of them worked from home, their secret plan to conduct criminal trading,” said prosecutor Tom Forster.
The prosecutor added that working from home hid the scheme “from the supervising eyes and ears of his colleagues”.
Korfuzi and his sister worked out of his flat and communicated with others who lived nearby for them to act as “secret proxies” in the trading scheme, Foster claimed.
Prosecutors said the group brought in about £963,000 from insider trading, with Smurfit Kappa as the highest returning position, bringing in £146,000 in profit.
All four defendants on trial have pleaded not guilty. The trial is due to conclude in May.
Janus Henderson was formed in 2017 as a meger between US investment firm Janus Capital and British-headquartered Henderson Group. The firm is not involved in the criminal case.