Market abuse enforcement: should you be afraid?

In 2009, Hector Sants infamously stated that, "People should be very frightened of the FSA." Four years on, he considers this objective to have been achieved, at least in relation to market abuse. Giving evidence to a parliamentary committee last month, he said, "when you look at what the FSA did over the past five years, when it set out to deal with market abuse, it did it well" [1].2012 saw the conclusion of some of the most important cases to be taken by the FSA since it reinvigorated its market abuse enforcement strategy; Chris Stott examines the emerging lessons.

Chris Stott (Chris.Stott@CliffordChance.com) is a lawyer in Clifford Chance's regulatory investigations, fraud and crime group, London.

Market misconduct is more likely than ever to lead to imprisonment

Individuals have more cause to be frightened of the FSA as a criminal prosecutor in 2013 than in 2009. Since then, the regulator has successfully prosecuted 21 individuals for insider dealing, increasing numbers of which have pleaded guilty.