FSA considers News Corp bid emails probe
The Financial Services Authority could look into emails sent by Jeremy Hunt’s office to News Corp in relation to possible market abuse.
The culture secretary’s staff appear to have given News Corp executives advance warning of Hunt’s decision to give the firm more time to alter its ill-fated bid for BSkyB last year.
The FSA has seen the emails released on Tuesday and a source familiar with the watchdog told City A.M. it could fall within its remit to investigate market abuse, although they cautioned the full facts were not yet known.
The emails released to the Leveson inquiry into media ethics yesterday claimed their first scalp, as Hunt’s special adviser Adam Smith resigned for going “too far” in his communications with News Corp executives while his boss was probing the company’s deal.
The FSA declined to comment.