CSFB exec 'behind at least 19 leaks'

A FORMER executive at investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston leaked at least 19 items of price-sensitive company information to an insider trading ring, Southwark Crown Court has heard.

Compliance officer Asif Butt allegedly passed the confidential information regarding imminent announcements to the market, to accomplices who placed lucrative bets on share-price movements.

Butt and four other men - Ian Beale, Richard Rudson, Daniel Masters and Alexander Colman - deny insider dealing-related charges. CSFB is not accused of any wrongdoing.

The court was told information about tobacco giant Gallaher was used to place profitable bets on both rises and falls in its shares.

Information about Royal Bank of Scotland and its takeover of NatWest was also allegedly leaked, along with data about EMI, Johnson Matthey, United News & Media, Chubb, engineer Charter, cooking equipment maker Enodis, property firm Grantchester and insurance broker Sedgwick.

Bets placed with foreknowledge of a profits warning at engineer FKI in 2001 allegedly netted the ring £24,000. It is accused of making an overall profit of about £260,000.

Butt worked at CSFB from August 1998 until January 2002, when he was dismissed. He is accused of phoning the information to his co-accused and then sharing in the proceeds of their winning bets. The case continues.