The Financial Conduct Authority has secured a confiscation order against a former Goldman Sachs analyst convicted of insider trading.
The FCA secured £586,711.01 against Mohammed Zina, who was jailed for 22 months last February.
The order, which was granted last Wednesday (29 January), amounts to all of Zina’s available assets.
Zina, 26, will have to pay the amount within three months or face a further five years in prison.
The FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, Therese Chambers, said: “Insider dealing harms the integrity of our markets. As well as prosecuting insider dealers, we will not allow them to keep any part of their illicit profits. We have confiscated the entirety of Mr Zina’s assets, demonstrating that crime does not pay.”
The FCA prosecuted Zina in 2023 following concerns over insider trading.
The regulator said Zina worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs International between 2014 and December 2017.
In 2016, he joined the investment firm’s Conflicts Resolutions Group. In that role he came into possession of inside information relating to potential mergers and acquisitions his employer was advising on.
Zina dealt in six shareholdings using this inside information. The six shareholdings were Arm Holdings plc, Alternative Networks plc, Punch Taverns plc, Shawbrook plc, HSN Inc and Snyder’s Lance Inc.
The total returns from trading in these stocks was approximately £140,486.
The trading was partly funded by three loans, fraudulently obtained from Tesco Bank, totalling £95,000.
The FCA said Zina’s benefit across all his offences including fraud amounting to £1,091,424.72, when adjusted for inflation.
