Latest news with #Korfuzi
Mint
02-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Analyst Accused of Insider Trading Said he Saved ‘Dying Fund'
(Bloomberg) -- A former Janus Henderson analyst accused of insider trading said he didn't closely read compliance documents as he was too busy trying to save the firm's 'dying fund.' Redinel Korfuzi is accused of conspiring with his sister and others to trade on insider information he obtained while working as an analyst on Janus Henderson's European equity investment team. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority, which is prosecuting the case, alleges that he helped his sister, girlfriend and personal trainer make short bets on stocks just before they issued new equity to the market. 'I was working 24/7 for that job,' Korfuzi said at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday. 'I saved their dying fund, it was maybe the best performing fund in Europe.' Korfuzi, who was a mutual fund analyst before being arrested in March 2021, would be privy to insider information on companies that were sounding out potential investors for equity raises, prosecutors said. Online trading accounts managed by Korfuzi's sister made a number of short bets using contracts-for-difference — effectively highly leveraged derivative bets that the stocks would fall. The wagers were often placed just minutes after Redinel Korfzi was informed that a particular company would be issuing new shares to the market as part of his role at Janus Henderson, while the two worked next to each other during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and early 2021, the jury was told. Compliance documents issued to Korfuzi required him to make disclosures about the trading activity, but he told the court that he had not read the document closely as he was busy trying to rescue Janus Henderson's ailing portfolio. 'I was extremely busy saving a dying fund,' he said in court. More stories like this are available on First Published: 2 May 2025, 01:11 PM IST
Telegraph
18-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Analyst accused of ‘using home-working rules' to make almost £1m from insider trading
An analyst has been accused of using working-from-home rules to make nearly £1 million from insider trading. Redinel Korfuzi, 37, a former Janus Henderson research analyst, denies money laundering and conspiracy to commit insider dealing. His sister Oerta Korfuzi, 36, Rogerio de Acquini, 63, and Dema Almeziad, 40, also stand accused. Tom Forster, prosecuting for the Financial Conduct Authority, told the court that working from home allowed Mr Korfuzi to run the scheme from the Marylebone flat he shared with his sister. Mr Forster claimed the defendants took advantage of the 'cloak afforded by national-lockdown restrictions' to hatch their plan to carry out insider trading between January 2019 and March 2021. They are said to have netted £963,000 in relation to 11 companies' shares including Daimler, Jet2 and THG and Russian tech firm now known as VK. Mr Korfuzi is accused of misusing confidential information on these companies. Jamie Ross, who worked with Mr Korfuzi at Janus Henderson on European equities, told the court that company systems could be accessed remotely on personal desktops through a platform called Citrus. 'I used the Citrus platform from my own desktop device at home, and I think that Mr Korfuzi did the same', he said. 'Communication was one of the big challenges,' according to Mr Ross, who said he mostly spoke to Mr Korfuzi on WhatsApp. 'When you are quite literally beside each other [at the office] you discuss investments and potential investments routinely,' Mr Ross added. 'Once you're separated and [both working from home], those discussions [are] migrated to WhatsApp and to phone conversations, and to a certain extent to email or even instant messaging.' 'I would have expected him to drop it and move on' The fund manager was then taken through a list of the potential transactions through which Korfuzi is said to have profited through confidential information. Asked about a transaction involving a personal email service, between September 22 and October 2, 2020, Mr Ross said he had 'initial interest' in the transaction but 'would have quickly lost that interest when I found out the aim of the company'. Mr Forster asked: 'In terms of Mr Korfuzi's interest, would you have expected him to show much interest in this, in your view of it?' Mr Ross replied: 'It would have been very clear to him this was not something I would have sanctioned, and was an investment I would not have been interested in.' The prosecutor then asked Mr Ross about a transaction involving Jet2, between February 4 and February 12, 2021. Mr Ross replied that Janus Henderson did not have a position on the package holiday company, adding that the proposed transaction would not have interested him at all. 'What would you have expected him to have done?', Mr Forster asked. 'Drop it, move on - carry on with other research work he was conducting,' Mr Ross replied.
