Suspects in court over '£2.5m insider dealing'

Seven men charged with insider trading over information from brokerage Cazenove and the London printers of Swiss bank UBS AG will appear in court today.

Mitesh Shah, Neten Shah, Paresh Shah, Bijal Shah, Truptesh Patel, Ali Mustafa and Pardip Saini are alleged to have used confidential information to trade in 12 UK-listed firms over two years, including in Reuters during its 2007 takeover by Thomson Corp of Canada.

It is the largest insider dealing case the Financial Services Authority has brought before court in its series of high-profile arrests to crack down on market abuse.

The FSA, which is seeking the extradition of an eighth suspect, last month charged the men with 13 counts of insider dealing that it says unlawfully netted them £2.5 million.

Mitesh Shah has also been charged with placing spread bets to launder proceeds. Today the case is expected to be referred to a higher court.

The regulator has brought three successful criminal cases against insider dealers. Its most high-profile victory was against Malcolm Calvert, a former partner at Cazenove, who was jailed for 21 months.