Mohammed Zina, a former analyst at Goldman Sachs, has been jailed for 22 months after using privileged information to make trades and earn more than £140,000 in profits.
The 35 year old was working for the London office of Goldman Sachs in an analyst role when the trades took place.
Prosecutors claim he used inside information to purchase shares in six companies from July 2016 to December 2017. One of the companies he bought shares in was microchip supplier, Arm. He allegedly had knowledge of SoftBank’s acquisition of the company in July 2016, before it was completed.
Judge Tony Baumgartner said at the trial on Friday: “You betrayed the trust of your employer, as well as cheated honest investors in the shares you traded using inside information you saw at work. What you did strikes at the very heart of our financial markets and the trust and confidence the public places in them.”
A Goldman Sachs spokesperson said: “Mohammed Zina betrayed the trust we placed in him, and his misuse of client information was in direct contradiction of our values. We have zero tolerance for this conduct.”
Between 2014 and December 2017, Zina worked as an analyst at Goldman and through his role in the Conflicts Resolution Group, which he joined in 2016, he came into possession of inside information relating to potential mergers and acquisitions that Goldman was advising on.
According to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), between 15th July 2016 and 4th December 2017, Zina dealt in six shareholdings using this inside information: Arm Holdings plc; Alternative Networks plc; Punch Taverns plc; Shawbrook plc; HSN Inc; and Snyder’s Lance Inc.
The total profit 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.
Steve Smart, Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, said “This conviction sends a clear message that economic crime is on our radar, and we will take action to uphold the integrity of UK markets.”
