Emma RadmoreFCA has published Decision Notices in respect of Banque Havilland and 3 of its employees for acting without integrity by creating and disseminating a document which contained manipulative trading strategies aimed at creating a false or misleading impression about the market in or price of Qatari bonds. FCA has decided to fine the bank £10m, and to ban its former London branch CEO, a former London branch senior manager and a former London branch employee and to fine them £352,000, £54,000 and £14,200 respectively.
FCA says that the actions, between September and November 2017, had the objective of devaluing the Qatari Riyal and breaking its peg to the US Dollar, and as a result harming the economy of Qatar. Had the strategy been implemented, the manipulative trading that resulted could have been a criminal offence.
FCA found that Edmund Rowland, the former branch CEO, tasked one of the branch employees, Vladimir Bolelyy to draft the document, and that David Weller, the senior manager, made a significant contribution to its content. Mr Rowland and Mr Bolelyy later disseminated the document. It found that the misconduct of Mr Rowland and Mr Bolelyy was deliberate, while Mr Weller claimed to have believed they were “joking around”.
The bank, Mr Rowland and Mr Bolelyy have referred their notices to the Upper Tribunal. While Mr Weller has not, Mr David Rowland (the ultimate controller of the bank), who was identified and prejudiced in the notices has exercised his third party rights to refer all the notices, although FCA is not taking action against him.