Former Seymour Pierce staffer banned from City
AN EX-employee of Seymour Pierce was yesterday banned by the Financial Services Authority from taking another job in financial services, in the latest of a string of penalties issued by the regulator in recent weeks.
The FSA said John White, who was settlements manager at the broker, had committed fraud, stealing a total of £152,372 from Seymour Pierce and its clients in 37 transactions between 2001 and 2006. White also transferred a personal trading loss into one of his former employer’s accounts.
His actions netted Seymour Pierce itself a £154,000 fine last year for failing to put in place adequate systems to prevent such a fraud taking place. White’s job in the firm’s back office included entering details of executed trades onto the system and updating clients’ personal account details.
Margaret Cole, the FSA’s enforcement tsar, said: “White was a long standing employee of Seymour Pierce who misused his senior position with the firm. He exposed weaknesses in the firm’s systems and used them to his advantage.”
Last week, FSA enforcement officers raided a London address and took a man into custody for questioning over an insider trading probe.