A former City analyst accused of insider trading that allegedly netted him nearly £1 million during the global pandemic was difficult to communicate with while working from his London home over lockdown, a court has heard.
Redinel Korfuzi, a 37-year-old former equities research analyst at asset manager Janus Henderson, has been charged with conspiracy to commit insider dealing and money laundering along with his sister, Oerta Korfuzi, 36, and two others.
Prosecutors have alleged that working under ‘the cloak afforded by national lockdown restrictions’ allowed Korfuzi to operate the scheme, which ran between January 2019 and March 2021, without oversight.
Jamie Ross, a portfolio manager on the European equities team at Janus Henderson alongside whom Korfuzi worked, outlined the communication challenges posed after the world stopped in March 2020 and staff were forced to access company systems remotely on a platform known as Citrus.
‘I used the Citrus platform from my own desktop device at home, and I think that Mr Korfuzi did the same’, he said.
‘[Communication] was one of the big challenges. When you are quite literally beside each other [at the office], you discuss investments and potential investments routinely.
‘Once you’re separated and one person is at his or her home and another person is at his or her home, those discussions migrated to WhatsApp and to phone conversations, and to a certain extent to email or even instant messaging.’
Mr Ross told Tom Forster of the Financial Conduct Authority, acting for the prosecution, that communication took place principally over WhatsApp.
Redinel Korfuzi, a former analyst at asset manager Janus Henderson, has been accused of insider trading that allegedly netted him nearly £1 million during the global pandemic
Korfuzi, seen here arriving at Southwark crown court last month with his sister and co-defendant Oerta Korfuzi, has denied the charges against him
Jamie Ross, a portfolio manager on the European equities team at Janus Henderson with whom Korfuzi worked, has said working from home during lockdown made communication difficult
Korfuzi, who has been accused of misusing confidential information on companies including Daimler, Jet2 and THG, has denied money laundering and conspiracy to commit insider dealing together with his sister.
Rogerio de Acquini, a 63-year-old personal trainer, and Dema Almeziad, 40, have also been charged with one count of insider dealing and money laundering.
Taken through a list of transactions in which Korfuzi might have used confidential information to gain profit, Mr Ross said he would not have sanctioned the deals.
He acknowledged he might have had ‘initial interest’ in a transaction involving Mail.ru. between 22 September and 2 October 2020, but said he ‘would have quickly lost that interest when I found out the aim of the company’.
‘In terms of Mr Korfuzi’s interest, would you have expected him to show much interest in this, in your view of it?’ asked Forster.
Mr Ross replied: ‘It would have been very clear to him this was not something I would have sanctioned, and was an investment I would not have been interested in.’
He offered a similar reply when asked about a transaction involving the package holiday company Jet2, between 4 February and 12 February 2021, denying that he would have been interested in the deal.
‘Would you have expected Mr Korfuzi, notwithstanding having been wall-crossed [making someone an insider by furnishing them with confidential information], to show much further interest?
‘No,’ replied Mr Ross.
‘What would you have expected him to have done?’ asked Forster.
‘Drop it, move on – carry on with other research work he was conducting,’ came the reply.
The case continues.
