Finma has fined a prominent Swiss businessman for alleged insider dealings and withdrawn. The Swiss regulator's actions are far more rigorous than in the past.
Swiss financial regulator Finma drew two separate market abuse proceedings to a close, it said on Friday. The first centers on Hans Ziegler (pictured; Image: Keystone), a Swiss corporate turnaround manager.
In November, Switzerland's attorney general disclosed that it is probing Ziegler, an enigmatic businessman who has joined several corporate boards. Finma, which originally initiated the probe before passing it on to the prosecutor, said it is fining the 65-year-old Ziegler 1.4 million Swiss francs.
Options Dealings
Finma said it had found 11 different instances at six firms in which Ziegler had conducted insider dealings. The businessman had repeatedly and systematically used information from within firms that he was linked to in order to benefit from share price movements, Finma said.
Ziegler frequently used options in order to place «long» positions, but in one case pursued a «shorting» strategy. Ziegler has been a board member of apparel make Charles Voegele, tech conglomerate OC Oerlikon and steel products maker Schmolz+Bickenbach.
Rigged Prop Trading
The second case centers on market abuse at an unnamed Swiss proprietary trading house, which also garnered million-franc profits. Finma banned three traders from working in securities trading for six and eight years, and banned them from working in management at financial firms for at least four years. The firm went into liquidation in 2015 after was found to be operating without a license.
The traders were found to have rigged Swiss blue-chip stocks by entering large buy and sell orders which it never had any intention to execute. Instead, the traders used derivatives on the underlying shares to exploit price movements generated by the large orders, which were subsequently deleted.
Finma said it found 300 cases around several dozen Swiss stocks. The regulator also ordered 200,000 francs in wrongfully-gotten dividend and bonus payments seized from one of the traders.
