On January 22, 2021, the UK Financial Conduct Authority announced that a confiscation order in the amount of £3,893,964.82 had been made against Walid Choucair, a London day trader who was sentenced in June 2019 to three years’ imprisonment for insider dealing. The confiscation amount is approximately double the amount of profit attributable to the five insider dealing offenses for which Choucair was convicted, as the court deemed that Choucair had profited from other illegal trading, in accordance with section 10 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. In addition to the confiscation amount, Choucair was ordered to pay prosecution costs of £403,552.
Choucair was convicted alongside his friend Fabiana Abdel-Malek, who communicated inside information to Choucair that Abdel-Malek had learned in the course of her employment as a compliance officer at an investment bank. Abdel-Malek was also sentenced to three years in prison, and a confiscation order in the amount of £34,194.53 was entered against her. Both Choucair and Abdel-Malek had unsuccessfully appealed their convictions.
January 27, 2021