The first person to be convicted of insider trading in the State’s history has been fined £60,000 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The alarm was raised when Goodbody Stockbrokers alerted the Central Bank to suspicious transactions made by Service, who was one of their clients. Open Orphan told all participants that the presentation was market-sensitive and that shareholders were prohibited from trading shares until the information was publicly available on Friday, May 22, 2020.
Prosecuting gardaí obtained recorded phone calls of Service saying to his broker on May 19th: “There’s going to be something on Friday that might lower the price a bit. I’d put next year’s holiday money in it if I were you.” However, because too many people tried to buy the shares, the accused was only able to buy £50,000 sterling worth of shares at the discounted price.
He told gardaí: “I truthfully didn’t realise I had done anything wrong. I acted innocently in my mind. It’s not in my DNA to do something I know to be illegal.”The prosecuting garda agreed with Brian Gageby BL, defending, that Service’s guilty plea was of benefit to the prosecution as such cases can otherwise be “tedious and tortuous” and “document-heavy”.
The court heard that Service worked for a US healthcare multinational for 17 years and then for 20 years in various healthcare companies in Ireland and abroad. He moved to Northern Ireland in 2021. Mr Gageby said Service has suffered significant mental health difficulties himself since his 20s and has been treated with antidepressants and antipsychotic medications.
“When one hears the evidence, one might take the view that he was some class of high-rolling, stock-dealing person who was trying to take the market to his own advantage, but this does not reflect the life he’s lived,” said Mr Gageby.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)