Jailed: Mohammed Zina received a 22-month sentence
A former Goldman Sachs analyst has been jailed for almost two years after using a Tesco Bank loan to fund insider trading.
Mohammed Zina, 35, received a 22-month sentence after being convicted earlier this week on six counts of insider trading and three counts of fraud.
His trading was part funded by three loans he had fraudulently obtained from Tesco Bank, which amounted to £95,000 in total.
Zina had applied for the loans by claiming he wanted to use the money for home improvements.
At the sentencing at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, Judge Tony Baumgartner said Zina’s crime had ‘struck at the heart of financial markets’ and was a betrayal of his employer’s trust. The judge said that otherwise it appeared Zina was of a good, ‘one might even say exemplary’, character.
But he said the defendant had engaged in ‘deliberate’ misconduct which had taken ‘planning and sophistication’ and involved deception.
Zina was convicted on all counts on Thursday. City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said the verdict sent a ‘clear message’ to fraudsters.
As part of the Goldman Sachs conflicts resolution group, Zina had inside information over possible mergers and acquisitions that the bank was advising on.
He traded in stocks using this information between July 2016 and December 2017, making a profit of £140,486.
Among stocks he traded were chip firm Arm Holdings, pub group Punch Taverns, specialist bank Shawbrook and US snack maker Snyder’s-Lance.
The defendant’s brother, Suhail Zina, 36, a former Clifford Chance lawyer, was acquitted after fraud charges were dropped and there was insufficient evidence on the insider dealing charges.
Steve Smart, of the FCA, said earlier in the week: ‘Mohammed Zina tried to cheat the market for his own personal gain by cynically trading on inside information.
‘This conviction sends a clear message that economic crime is on our radar and we will take action to uphold the integrity of UK markets.’
- Goldman Sachs’s boss David Solomon earned £25m ($31m) in 2023 – his second-biggest pay package since taking over in 2018 – despite a slump in profits. The earnings came even though the bank slashed its workforce and took a hit from a slowdown in investment banking activity.
