Father and son Jeffery and Jeremy Burley have been handed out financial penalties by the FSA for market abuse.
Whilst people tend to co-operate with the FSA during an investigation (and indeed in this case both settled early and qualified for the FSA’s 30% discount), the Final Notice in respect of Jeremy Burley is unusual as it mentions that his lack of co-operation was taken into account when deciding on the action to be taken and the penalty imposed.
In this case the father and son were being fined for dealing on information in relation to Tower Resources’ first oil well in Uganda. The information indicated that the drilling looked unlikely to produce oil and that the exploration of a second well was unlikely to proceed.
As a result Jeremy Burley was given a comparatively hefty total financial penalty of £144,200 which included a disgorgement of £21,700, the proceeds from his trading. Jeffrey Burley, on the other hand, did co-operate and did not personally benefit from the market abuse.
Nevertheless he was also subject to a financial penalty (£35,000).
