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A former Janus Henderson analyst and his associates were part of a “secret trading club” driven by greed that used insider information to earn profits of nearly £1mn, a London court has heard.
Redinel Korfuzi fed “wall-crossed” information gleaned from his job about companies, including Daimler and Jet2, to his sister and friends, the prosecution told the jury during its closing speech at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday as the three-month criminal trial neared its conclusion.
The group were motivated by “greed, plain and simple”, making about £963,000 in just over six months, alleged Tom Forster KC, acting for the Financial Conduct Authority, which is prosecuting the case. This “was plainly a secret trading club” that was “rigged” by the use of inside information, he said.
Redinel Korfuzi is standing trial alongside his sister, Oerta Korfuzi, 36; his personal trainer Rogerio de Aquino, 63; and de Aquino’s girlfriend Dema Almeziad, 40. They are charged with one count of insider dealing and one count of money laundering between December 2019 and March 2021. The defendants deny the charges.
The FCA accuses Redinel Korfuzi of using information he had as an insider in his former role at Janus Henderson to allow his co-conspirators to trade and make a profit, while using homeworking during the Covid-19 pandemic as cover.
The group traded in companies including packaging group Smurfit Kappa and German real estate company Vonovia, often within 24 hours of Redinel Korfuzi obtaining inside information from his job, the jury heard.
Forster recounted how cash deposits were taken from safety deposit boxes by Oerta Korfuzi, who conducted the trading, and paid into different branches of the same bank sometimes on the same day, alleging this was an attempt to make sure the money was “rinsed” through accounts.
“Are you being told the truth by the Korfuzis?,” Forster asked the jury. “If not, ask yourselves why you have been lied to? It’s not for an innocent reason. It’s because the cash is dirty [ . . . ] and they have been running a trading club to cheat the market.”
Both the siblings gave evidence during the trial. The pair claimed that the money was not linked to trading on inside information but cash payments collected from UK clients of their father’s Albanian construction business.
De Aquino and Almeziad did not testify. De Aquino told the FCA in an interview that he had been “hoodwinked” by Redinel Korfuzi, while Almeziad said the pair had been “duped”, the prosecution said. Both maintain their innocence.
The FCA announced the charges in the investigation, known as Operation Naples, in January 2023. The trial started in February. The jury is expected to retire next week.
