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Father and son had Chinese meals code for insider trading
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor06.11.09
A father and son used coded messages about Chinese meals to exchange illegal share tips.
Business student Matthew Uberoi, who had a work placement at City broker Hoare Govett, and his dentist father Neel were convicted of insider trading that made them about £110,000.
The 24-year-old son, who told the court that most of his knowledge about City trading rules came from the movie Wall Street, used information he picked up at work to tip off his father.
Neel was then able to make a series of "exceptionally well-timed" share purchases, the first of which made a "very sweet" profit of £101,000.
The jury at Southwark crown court heard how the pair communicated using a "Chinese takeaway" code through an internet bulletin board. Neel Uberoi, a devoted Chelsea fan, used the name BlueForever, while his son was known as Youthful Trader.
John Kelsey-Fry, QC, prosecuting for the Financial Service Agency, highlighted one of the exchanges, on 6 June 2006, when Matthew sent a message saying: "Blue (Forever) get involved with Chinese now."
BlueForever replied: "Picked up another 3k this morning, cheers."
That morning Neel bought 3,000 shares in NeuTec Pharma, a company in takeover talks and advised by Hoare Govett. The next morning Neutec announced it had agreed a takeover offer from Swiss rival Novartis that sent the share price soaring.
But in evidence Matthew Uberoi, from Fulham, claimed he could not possibly have passed inside informa because he never had it.
He added: "It was never drilled down to me that Hoare Govett is where people hold inside information." The training was so limited he "learnt more from films like Wall Street". "But the biscuits were very good," he added.
His 62-year-old father, of Kenley, Surrey, insisted he owed his share buying success to honest "internet research".
But the jury convicted them of 12 counts of insider trading in 2006. They will be sentenced next month.
Reader views (11)
I've heard about Chinese food being made to 'share'....but this is ridiculous!
- Nowan, London
The amount of front-running of client orders and general thieving makes this look academic......if people only realised what REALLY goes on in the City(I witnessed 4 decades of it)they would never trust their Bankers/Advisors again.How do you honestly believe the big boys make so much money?
- Anon, london
Let's see if I understand this. The FSA- you remember them, it was on their watch that the entire banking sector took the whole country to the edge of a precipice last year (no prosecutions, no arrests, no handcuffs).They, however, have the resources and manpower to chase a kid doing work experience in a stockbrokers who learnt his 'trading skills' from the film Wall Street.
You couldn't make it up. It emphasises that the FSA is not fit for purpose. To quote the great Gordon Gekko 'they don't know preferred stock from livestock'.
- Paul, Kent
Can't help suspecting that these gentlemen have obtained the MP's secret book on how to better your bank balance.
Oh! I forgot, these two were never elected, so held no license to fiddle.
Clearly a case of no goose and no gander dishes.
- Ken.H, Harrow. UK
I'll have king prawn balls and a bag of chips please.
Erm, I've not got the hang of this yet.
- Anthony, Esher, Surrey
dont worry about these 2 when is the trial over the mps expenses starting?
- Rsaviour, london
They will now have to pay compensation of ten portions of chicken chow mein, two hundred barbecue spare ribs, one thousand bowls of sweetcorn soup, fifty containers of curry sauce, and eighty bags of prawn crackers.
Plus, they'll only do porridge for a couple of months.
- Nowan , London
Hardly Gordon Gecko is he? Is this just to divert attention away fromn the greedy bankers that do this on a scale so large each day no-one can think about prosecuting?
- Mr Opinion, London
With the banking sector conning the public out of millions every year, whats £100,000 nowadays, and to think these two chinese takeaways had insider knowledge too.
- Mr S.Port, London
I'll have a 31 with fried rice please.
(That's code for an eye watering bonus.)
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark
"Father and son had Chinese meals code for insider trading insider trading"
Is there an echo in here?!
Trouble with this system is that would want some more illegal share tips in twenty minutes!
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
