Insider Trading Siblings Used Lockdown to Make £1 Million
Overnight it had been announced that the Von Finck family were going to sell 2.3 billion francs ($2.8 billion) of their holding. That's a huge chunk of stock for buyers to absorb, and the price fell the most in nearly five years.
'Stay ready,' Janus Henderson Group Plc analyst Redinel Korfuzi wrote in a message to his sister Oerta in their native Albanian, 55 seconds after the bell that day.
Two minutes later, from the mutual fund giant's office in Bishopsgate, London, he messaged again: 'Stay ready because we have to close it if needed.'
His sister was in the cramped living room of the flat they shared in Marylebone. The day before, she had opened two highly-leveraged short positions. With a little over £10,000 ($13,400) of equity, she had amassed a position with an initial notional volume of more than £150,000, wagering that SGS's stock would fall.
With no answer from Oerta, her brother messaged again, and called her, finally getting through at 8:04 a.m.
'Open the platform and stay ready,' he said on WhatsApp shortly after an eight-second call. Finally, his sister responded: 'Gati Ikam' or, in English, 'I have them ready.'
The exchange is just one of several that the UK's Financial Conduct Authority argued at a London trial was clear evidence of trading on insider information. On Thursday, a jury at Southwark Crown Court agreed, finding the two guilty of insider dealing and money laundering. Two others, Redinel's personal trainer Rogerio de Aquino, 63, and his partner Dema Almeziad, 40, were acquitted of all charges.
At its heart, Redinel's plan was little different to countless other insider trading scandals. As part of his job, he had access to advance information on companies, in this case upcoming large share sales that often lead to price declines when announced. That's what happened with the SGS placing, which Redinel was informed about not long before his sister shorted it.
The Korfuzis repeated this trick more than 10 times over the next year or so, continuing as the two worked from home during Covid lockdowns. With the SGS trade, Oerta and her brother made £7,747 in a little over 20 minutes. Before they were stopped by an FCA raid in March 2021, they had made almost £1 million.
It was a 'trading club to cheat the market,' according to the prosecution's lawyer, Tom Forster.
During the trial, 36-year-old Oerta said she made the trades based on her analysis, without knowing her brother had any insider knowledge. But the jury refused to believe that she was 'subconsciously' influenced by phone conversations across the living room, that she quickly analyzed charts and technical indicators for company names she overheard and placed profitable bets.
Redinel, 38, denied involvement in the trades, at one point saying he was too busy saving what he called a 'dying fund' at Janus Henderson.
In its case, the FCA presented evidence such as call records, data from phones and laptops, as well as a trove of WhatsApp and Telegram messages.
'Check out the app urgently. Check out the other app,' one of Redinel's translated WhatsApps to his sister said.
That was sent less than a minute after he received market sensitive information about a proposed sale of £500 million worth of Hargreaves Lansdown Plc shares in February 2020. Redinel was at Janus Henderson's office at the time and referring to Telegram as the other app, according to the prosecutors.
One minute after he got the Hargreaves information, Redinel called Oerta for eight seconds — when the prosecutors say he could've passed on the company's name. Within 15 minutes, Oerta moved money between accounts and began shorting the shares.
Other companies traded included vehicle manufacturer Daimler Truck Holding AG, budget airline Jet2 Plc and pharmaceutical firm Dermapharm Holding SE. Janus Henderson wasn't accused of any wrongdoing.
'He was in truth the king of stocks. She the enthusiastic apprentice,' Forster said during the trial.
According to prosecutors, British national de Aquino and his Saudi fiance were 'secret proxies' for the trading syndicate and handled 'dirty cash.'
Both had pleaded not guilty and maintained they didn't know Redinel had insider information. They didn't testify during the trial.
To make the bets, Redinel helped de Aquino and Almeziad open trading accounts. De Aquino had told police that they were 'two idiots' who were hoodwinked by him.
Oerta made about £430,000 from the trades, while de Aquino and his girlfriend raked in £135,000. Another trading account controlled by the siblings posted £408,000.
The siblings claimed to have never discussed the trading or the massive profits with each other. The prosecution saw it differently.
'The truth is for the residents of Brunswick House there was never going to be enough money,' Forster said. 'Arrogance, pride, entitlement and greed drove them on – and it has ruined them.'
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Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
‘Encounter' heat on Jharkhand Police as a tribal area mourns the politician who gave them a school
DEPENDING on whom you ask, there were two Surya Hansdas. For his village Lalmatia in Boarijor block of Godda district, he was a man dedicated to tribal welfare, who ran a school providing free education and lodging to Adivasi children. For police, the 45-year-old who entered politics sometime in 2009 and changed parties several times, was a troublemaker, with 25 criminal cases against him. On the evening of August 10, Hansda, who was once associated with the BJP, was killed in a police 'encounter'. While a pall of gloom hangs over Lalmatia, with videos of children of his school crying over his body going viral, police point to the cases registered against him across Godda and neighbouring areas, on charges of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, criminal conspiracy, possession of illegal arms and rioting. One case police talk about is of Hansda allegedly breaking the hand of an officer who had gone to arrest him. However, details regarding the cases against him remain fuzzy, with police clamming up as the issue snowballs. 'Surya's killing is not just his encounter. It is an encounter of the entire future of Adivasi children,' says his younger brother Pramod Hansda, who lives in Lalmatia and works with Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), the largest employer in these parts. Jharkhand BJP chief Babulal Marandi – with whom Hansda's family claims he was close – has announced a seven-member team to 'probe' the alleged encounter, calling it a murder. Hansda was one of five siblings – four brothers and a sister – born to Raja Hansda, who served for a time as mukhiya of Lalmatia village. A graduate in English from Sahibganj College – a rarity in an area where few go for higher studies – Raja believed fervently in tribals getting a good education, the family says. He donated land for the local church authority to start a school, says Pramod. Hansda studied at St John's Missionary School in the village and later joined a college in Godda. However, he dropped halfway through his BA course. In the early 2000s, after Jharkhand had been carved out of Bihar, Hansda got a job as a worker at ECL, as compensation for the government taking over an acre of the family land. According to Pramod, it was then that Hansda was attracted to activism, with tribals feeling shortchanged by the government on land compensation. 'He was labelled an extremist for raising Adivasi issues,' he says. This coincided with rising enmity between the Hansdas and a family in the village. When one of the members of the family got killed, Hansda and his three brothers were suspected by police and went into hiding. According to Pramod, things were not the same for Hansda after that, with police arresting him from Dumka in 2009. Soon after, their father died, and Hansda decided to jump into the electoral fray. He got a ticket from the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) for the Borio Assembly seat. The JVM had been formed by Marandi – the first CM of Jharkhand (2000-2003) – after falling out with the BJP. Hansda's mother Neelmani Murmu, who is now the mukhiya of Lalmatia, points out that despite not being able to campaign, Hansda got 26,000 votes and finished third, attributing both the ticket to him as well as his performance to his popularity among the Santhals. In 2014, Hansda again contested from the Borio Assembly seat on the JVM ticket, and this time increased his vote tally, though he again finished third. In 2019, when the JVM merged with the BJP and Marandi returned to the party, Hansda followed. He contested on the BJP ticket from Borio in the 2019 Assembly polls, securing around 59,000 votes this time. However, he still finished a substantial margin behind the JMM candidate. But in 2024, Hansda was denied a ticket, and decided to move to the fast-rising Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) led by popular newcomer Jairam Mahato. The JLKM won only 1 seat, though, and Hansda suffered a humiliating defeat from Borio. By then, as per the family, Hansda had decided to pursue his dream of starting a school for tribal children. During Covid, when he lost the eldest of his five children, Raja Raj, 8, he almost gave up the idea, says his wife Sushila, but persuasion by the community changed his mind. Hansda named his school 'Chand Bhairav Raja Raj' (after two tribal brothers who had participated in a Santhal agitation against the British, and his son). The school, with classes from 1 to 8, was run by a trust headed by Hansda, out of the family's ancestral home, with separate hostel sections for girls and boys. Sushila says that the school, affiliated with the CBSE, drew children not only from Godda but other districts such as Sahibganj, and Deoghar, and even Bihar, with 350 currently enrolled with it. 'From books to uniforms, he provided everything free,' Sushila says. Since the school opened around five years ago, Pramod says, classes were never suspended – till Hansda's killing. 'The children lost not just a teacher, but a father.' The mother of one of the students at Hansda's school says: 'We come from very poor families, from remote areas, and have no money. This school is the future of our community.' The alleged encounter in which Hansda was killed followed a firing incident in an ECL mining area in late May. Police allege that Hansda was also involved in setting trucks on fire at a crusher mill in Sahibganj. However, they have given conflicting versions of how the alleged encounter happened. In the FIR, they say they captured Hansda from near a hill in Nawadih village of Deoghar district and were driving away with him when his associates ambushed them. Hansda snatched a rifle from a policeman and tried to run away, they said, causing them to fire back. But, in a press release issued by it, police said they were conducting a search operation for Hansda when his group started firing, and that he in the melee snatched a rifle and died in the exchange of fire. His 'associates' remain unidentified in the FIR. Police also claim to have recovered arms and ammunition from Hansda and his men, including allegedly two pistols. In the press conference held a day after Hansda's killing, SP Mukesh Kumar said the case against Hansda in the firing incident at ECL mining area had been filed by the company's Senior Security Inspector, Baldev Yadav. Yadav told The Indian Express that he never saw the group 'of around 30-40' involved in firing on the intervening night of May 28-29 from up close, and that they were all wearing masks. 'By the time we rushed on hearing the shooting, they had disappeared, leaving behind 40–50 empty cartridges. They had come with petrol, apparently to set vehicles on fire. But because our team arrived quickly, they could not carry out their plan,' he says. Yadav adds that he was shocked when he heard on the news that the Godda police were linking his case to Hansda, as he had not named anybody. 'We would hear Hansda's name whenever mine-related disputes came up, but I never had any direct information about him,' Yadav says. The Indian Express's attempts to reach the Godda SP were unsuccessful. At the August 11 press conference, where he mentioned the long list of cases against Hansda, SP Kumar also said: 'Previously in Sahibganj, when the then DSP went to arrest him, Hansda attacked the DSP and broke his hand.' Approached by The Indian Express, Lalmatia police in-charge Roushan Kumar and DSP Chandrashekhar said they had no information about Hansda attacking the former DSP. Marandi has pointed to the 'contradictions' in the police versions and said only a CBI probe can arrive at the truth. Accusing 'criminal-minded' elements within the Jharkhand Police of 'harassing opponents through false cases' and 'protecting criminals', the BJP state chief said Hansda was targeted because some in power feared he would mobilise Adivasis to fight for their rights and resources. Hansda's current party JKLM asks why, if he was an accused, he was not produced in court after arrest, chargesheeted, and put on trial, rather than being killed in an alleged encounter at night. Calling the police role 'suspicious', JKLM general secretary Vijay Singh also demanded a CBI probe. On Thursday, the government announced that it was handing over the probe to the CID. Marandi and another BJP leader, Arjun Munda, are expected to visit Hansda's home in Lalmatia on August 17, to attend a death ritual. Neelmani Murmu says that contrary to what police claim, Hansda was recovering from a bout of typhoid at his aunt's house in Deoghar when he was arrested, with his hands and legs tied. Showing photographs of Hansda's body, she says he had offered to surrender but was instead arrested. 'How could he flee when he was ill and his hands and legs were bound? His body had burn marks in several places, and his thighs bore marks from being beaten with sticks.' She adds that Hansda's only fault was that he was an Adivasi. 'No allegations have yet been proven against him… while there are several politicians around with more than 50 criminal cases against them… Even terrorists like Kasab got due process, but Adivasi voices like Surya's are always silenced by bullets.'
Mint
3 hours ago
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Airbus set to break Boeing's long-held aviation record: Details here
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Max Kingsley-Jones, head of advisory at Cirium Ascend, wrote of the A320 in a recent social-media post. 'I certainly didn't, and nor probably did Airbus.' The A320's success mirrors the European planemaker's decades-long rise from fledgling planemaker to serious contender, and finally Boeing's better. By the early 2000s, annual deliveries of the A320 and its derivatives had surpassed the 737 family; total orders eclipsed the Boeing jet in 2019. But the 737 stubbornly remained the most-delivered commercial aircraft of all time. At the outset, Airbus faced an uphill battle. The European planemaker, an assemblage of aerospace manufacturers formed in 1970 with backing from European governments, didn't yet offer a full aircraft lineup. Infighting hindered everything from product planning to manufacturing, and leadership decisions had to finely balance French and German commercial and political interests. Yet it was clear even then that Airbus needed a presence in the narrowbody segment to firmly establish itself as Boeing's top rival. Those aircraft are by far the most widely flown category in commercial aviation, typically connecting city pairs on shorter routes. Higher fuel costs and the deregulation of the US aviation industry in the late 1970s had given the European planemaker an opening with American airline executives, who clamored for an all-new single-aisle, according to a history of Airbus written by journalist Nicola Clark. To set the A320 apart, Airbus took some risks. It selected digital fly-by-wire controls that saved weight over traditional hydraulic systems, and gave pilots a side-stick at their right or left hand instead of a centrally mounted yoke. The aircraft also sat higher off the ground than the 737 and came with a choice of two engines, giving customers greater flexibility. Airbus's gamble paid off. Today, the A320 and 737 make up nearly half of the global passenger jet fleet in service. And the A320's success contrasts with strategic blunders like the A380 behemoth that proved short-lived because airlines couldn't profitably operate the giant plane. Boeing maintained that smaller, nimbler planes like the 787 Dreamliner would have an edge — a prediction that proved right. Yet the longtime dominance of the two narrowbody aircraft raises questions about the vitality of a duopoly system that favors stability over innovation. Both airplane makers have repeatedly opted for incremental changes that squeeze efficiencies out of their top-selling models, rather than going the more expensive route of designing a replacement aircraft from scratch. Airbus was first to introduce new engines to its A320, turning the neo variant into a huge hit with airlines seeking to cut their fuel bill. Under pressure, Boeing followed, but its approach proved calamitous. The US planemaker came up with the 737 Max, strapping more powerful engines onto the aircraft's aging, low-slung frame. It installed an automated flight-stabilizing feature called MCAS to help manage the higher thrust and balance out the plane. Regulators later found MCAS contributed to two deadly 737 Max crashes that led to a global grounding of the jet for 20 months, starting in 2019. More recently, Airbus has been bedeviled by issues with the fuel-efficient engines that power the A320neo. High-tech coatings that allow its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofans to run at hotter temperatures have shown flaws, forcing airline customers to send aircraft in for extra maintenance, backing up repair shops and grounding hundreds of jets waiting for inspection and repair. With both narrowbody families near the end of their evolutionary timeline, analysts and investors have begun asking about what's next. China, for its part, is seeking to muscle into the market with its Comac C919 model that's begun operating in the country, but hasn't so far been certified to fly in Europe or the US. Boeing Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg said in July that the company is working internally toward a next-generation plane, but is waiting for engine technology and other factors to fall into place, including restoring cash flow after years of setbacks. 'That's not today and probably not tomorrow,' he said on a July 29 call. Airbus's healthier finances give it more flexibility to explore design leaps. CEO Guillaume Faury toyed with rolling out a hydrogen-powered aircraft — potentially with a radical 'flying wing' design — in the mid-2030s but has since pushed back the effort to focus on a conventional A320 successor. The Toulouse, France-based company is considering an open-rotor engine that would save fuel through its architecture rather than the current jet turbines that push the limits of physics to eke out gains. Speaking at the Paris Air Show in June, Faury called the A320 'quite an old platform' and affirmed plans to launch a successor by the end of this decade, with service entry in the mid-2030s. 'I have a lot of focus on preparing that next-generation of single aisle,' Faury said. 'We are very steady and very committed to this.' --With assistance from Jinshan Hong.
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Posing as his friend, fake cop visited Meghalaya murder victim Raja Raghuvanshi's family. A minor detail gave him away
For months, a parade of relatives, police personnel and journalists visited the Indore home of Raja Raghuvanshi, who was murdered, allegedly by his wife Sonam and hired killers, during their Meghalaya honeymoon. The high-profile case had put the family under the direct glare of a spotlight, which only intensified once a new movie was announced about the murder. The families of Raja and Sonam, which had come close together in the immediate aftermath of the murder, are now involved in bitter feuds, with Raja's family insisting the police investigate not just Sonam but her family members too. So, when a man in a railway police uniform appeared at Raja's residence on Thursday, claiming to be a Station House Officer who wanted to offer condolences, the family's radar was already up. The imposter's mistake? Claiming he had befriended Raja at Ujjain's Mahakal Temple in 2021, during the Covid lockdown. Except that Raja never travelled during the pandemic. Within hours, the fake cop found himself in a real police station, and his elaborate costume of three-star insignia, RPF badge, and regulation red shoes was seized by the Indore police. Police have arrested the man, identified as Bajrang Lal from Rajasthan, who they say had mined social media coverage of the murder to craft his backstory. 'This is not his first time impersonating a police officer. We are looking into his previous criminal record. He had researched the murder case and tried to dupe the family. He has been arrested and booked,' said a senior police officer. After Lal arrived on August 14 at the Raghuvanshi household, Raja's mother Uma alerted his brother, Sachin, that a policeman was making enquiries about the case. Sachin and other relatives rushed to their home and found Lal, who claimed that he was 'Raja's friend' and was 'currently posted in Delhi, but previously stationed in Ujjain two years ago', Sachin told the police. The story seemed plausible at first. He said he had met Raja in 2021 at the famous Mahakal Temple in Ujjain. But the grieving brother immediately remembered Raja had stayed at home during the lockdown. Confronted with this inconsistency, Lal began 'changing his story,' according to the police report. When pressed for identification, the imposter did produce an ID card, but when asked for his phone number, he claimed he 'doesn't remember'. The family's patience was wearing thin. When they threatened to contact the local police station, Lal's composure cracked. According to the police, he 'started getting nervous and said he had come to share the grief of Raja's death with the family', trying to portray his visit as a condolence call. He then sought to leave the house. Sensing something was wrong, Sachin called his friends to the house. Soon, the jig was up. 'Using information from social media about my brother Raja's murder, he came to my house to mislead me and my family. My brother Raja had never mentioned knowing any railway police TI,' Sachin told the police. Raja Raghuvanshi was killed during his honeymoon in Meghalaya in May. The crime was allegedly orchestrated by his wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi, who was in a relationship with Raj Kushwaha. She allegedly plotted the murder before their wedding, arranged for a machete to be bought online, and hired three men to carry out the killing. After several failed attempts, the assailants fatally attacked Raja near Wei Sawdong Falls on May 23. His decomposed body was recovered on June 2, and all five accused are now in judicial custody.
