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Ex-Moore Capital Trader Banned by FCA After Insider-Dealing Plea

Ex-Moore Capital Trader Banned by FCA After Insider-Dealing Plea

Julian Rifat, a former trader at Moore Capital, was banned by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority more than five years after he pleaded guilty to insider trading.

Rifat, who was previously sentenced to 19 months in jail, isn’t a “fit and proper person” to continue to operate in the financial services sector, the regulator said Tuesday in a statement.

Rifat, who was arrested on his 41st birthday in 2010, was one of the principal targets of the FCA’s Operation Tabernula, a major effort to prosecute insider dealing in the wake of the financial crisis. He was an execution trader in the London office of Moore Capital, and was charged with profiting from illegal tips in companies including Barclays Plc, Volkswagen AG and Metro AG.

Rifat didn’t immediately respond to calls and messages seeking comment.

Tabernula, Latin for “little tavern,” was once the most complex insider-trading investigation in British history. Before the 2008 financial crisis, no one had ever been prosecuted for using insider tips while trading. But by the time of Rifat’s sentencing, at least eight others had been caught up in the probe.

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