FSA bans former Seymour Pierce manager for fraud
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The FSA has banned former Seymour Pierce settlements manager John White for fraud.
Last year the FSA fined Seymour Pierce £154,000 for failing to establish effective controls to prevent an employee committing fraud. White was the employee concerned.
Between 2001 and 2006, White stole a total of £152,372 from investment bank and stockbroker and a number of its private clients in 37 separate transactions, and hid £145,000 in a dormant account that had been paid to Seymour Pierce in error.
In one instance, White transferred a personal trading loss into a Seymour Pierce account and also stole trading profits, dealing commission and credit interest belonging to his employer.
In his role White was responsible for entering details of executed trades onto the system. His job also entailed making changes to static data, such as names, addresses, and account numbers, on client accounts.
The FSA says Seymour Pierce has returned money and assets to clients who were victims of White’s fraudulent activities.
FSA director of enforcement and financial crime Margaret Cole says: “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.
“We expect people who work in the financial services industry to behave with honesty and integrity, yet White’s conduct was anything but. As this case demonstrates, we are committed to deterring behaviour of this kind by punishing anyone found to have committed such misconduct.”
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 25 May 2010 11:09 am
There are 2 sides to every story and how about looking into the activities of some of the FSA individuals, both in their current roles and the previous roles.I bet their have skeletons in their cupboards.
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Anonymous | 25 May 2010 12:04 pm
Was it really necessary to fine this company at such an obscene level of cost because they did not have the suitable controls when they were already suffering the loss of credibility which would damage their business and is it not about time we stopped filling the FSA coffers with such absurd levels of fines when they are already bloated with the levies that we are currently paying.
Is it only going to stop when only the banks, who are whiter than white according the FSA, are left.
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