FCA decides to fine Tariq Carrimjee in relation to market abuse committed by Rameshkumar Goenka in October 2010

Carrimjee has referred his Decision Notice to the Upper Tribunal (the Tribunal) where he and the FCA will each present their case.  The Tribunal will then determine the appropriate action for the FCA to take.  The Tribunal may uphold, vary or cancel the FCA’s decision.  The Tribunal’s decision will be made public on its website.

The Decision Notice to Carrimjee, which reflects the FCA’s view of what occurred and how the behaviour is to be characterised, states that the FCA has decided to fine Tariq Carrimjee £89,004 and ban him from performing any role in regulated financial services for recklessly assisting Goenka in his plan to manipulate Gazprom and Reliance securities in 2010.

The FCA considers that Carrimjee introduced Goenka to a firm of brokers for the specific purpose of trading in the LSE closing auctions; he then participated in discussions about trading and assisted with arrangements for the trading.  The FCA further considers that Carrimjee did so despite suspecting that Goenka held structured products related to the trading and despite suspecting that the objective of Goenka’s plan was to secure the price of Gazprom and Reliance securities at a false or artificial level.

The FCA considers that the fine and the prohibition sought reflect the serious nature of the actions set out in the Decision Notice and should act as a deterrent to other market participants.

Carrimjee held Significant Influence Function (SIF) positions at Somerset at the relevant time and was responsible for compliance oversight.  The FCA therefore considers his conduct to be particularly serious.

The FCA has, in addition to the Carrimjee Decision Notice, today published two Final Notices also in relation to the Goenka market manipulation.

Notes for editors

1. The Decision Notice for Carrimjee[1].
2. On 17 October 2011 Goenka was fined US$ 9.6 million for manipulating the closing price of Reliance GDRs on the LSE. The Final Notice issued to Goenka[2] in October 2011.
3. The two Final Notices referred to for Davis[3] and Parikh[4].
4. In April 2010 the Financial Services Act 2010 amended section 391 of FSMA giving the Authority the power to publish decision notices.  This power became active in October 2010.  
5. The Authority’s approach to publishing decision notices was explained in Policy Statement 11/3[5] published in January 2011.
6. The relevant securities were Global Depository Receipts (GDRs).  These are parcels of shares in a particular company which are listed and traded on international exchanges separately from the company’s shares.  In publishing the Notices, the FCA is not in any way criticising Reliance or Gazprom.
7. On the 1 April 2013 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) became responsible for the conduct supervision of all regulated financial firms and the prudential supervision of those not supervised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
8. The FCA has an overarching strategic objective of ensuring the relevant markets function well. To support this it has three operational objectives: to secure an appropriate degree of protection for consumers; to protect and enhance the integrity of the UK financial system; and to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers.
9. Find out more information about the FCA, as well as how it is different to the PRA.