Brothers plead 'not guilty' in Goldman Sachs insider trading case

BROTHERS from Stoke Newington, north London, have have denied insider trading and fraud charges in a case brought by the City regulator.

Former Goldman Sachs employee Mohammed Zina and his lawyer brother Suhail, both 33, pleaded not guilty to six counts of insider dealing and three counts of fraud at Southwark crown court earlier this week, according to a report in The Times.

The siblings are accused of netting more than £140,000 between July 15, 2016 and December 4, 2017.

Mohammed worked in a part of Goldman that checked for conflicts of interest between it and its clients, while Suhail was a solicitor at Clifford Chance, a leading City law firm, the report said.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has alleged that the total profit from the insider dealing was about £142,000. The offences involved trading in Arm Holdings, Alternative Networks, Punch Taverns, Shawbrook, HSN and Snyder’s-Lance, The Times report added.

The brothers were further accused of fraud relating to three personal loans obtained from Tesco Bank totalling £95,000. They allegedly claimed that the loans were for funding home improvements, but the money was used instead to fund their alleged insider dealing, the regulator claimed.

According to FCA, the pair had access to confidential information available to members of the conflicts resolution group at Goldman Sachs. The group evaluates advisory, financing, principal investing, lending and other activities to identify actual or perceived conflicts of interest.

Fraud carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and insider trading up to seven years. The brothers are on unconditional bail and will be tried at the same court on April 4 next year, the media report further said.