Former Manager at BlackRock Investment Management gets 12 months in prison for insider dealing

asic charges

In a prosecution brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Mark Lyttleton, a former Equity Portfolio Manager at BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, has today been sentenced to 18 months reduced with credit to 12 months on two counts of insider dealing. A confiscation order was also made in the sum of £149,861.27 and costs awarded to the FCA of £83,225.62.

In sentencing Mr Lyttleton the trial judge HHJ Goymer remarked:

Insider dealing is not a victimless crime, I regard these offences as pre-meditated and blatantly dishonest.

Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, said:

Lyttleton’s insider dealing involved a gross abuse of the trust placed in him as a senior fund manager. He tried to hide his misconduct through the use of unregistered mobile phones and setting up a company in his wife’s maiden name in an overseas jurisdiction. None of this meant he could avoid detection.

Those who are tempted to insider deal, especially financial industry professionals, must know now they are more likely to be caught than ever before and, when caught, they will likely face a custodial sentence.

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