Britain’s Financial Services Authority has levied its first fine against an individual for posting secret company information on an Internet bulletin board or other forum.
David Isaacs was fined £15,000 for posting secret information about technology company Trafficmasters that he obtained from a visit to a Trafficmasters worker’s home, according to British news reports.
The FSA believes Isaacs posted the information in a bid to pump up the price of Trafficmasters shares, 42,000 of which shares Isaacs owned.
"Internet bulletin boards can offer a legitimate and valuable source of publicly available information to investors," said FSA acting director of enforcement David Mayhew to reporters. "But when an individual inappropriately obtains and discloses relevant company information, that is not generally available, through the Internet, then this will amount to market abuse."
It may have been for nothing, however: a British report said Isaacs’ act did not affect Trafficmasters shares “dramatically.” But Trafficmasters chief executive Stuart Berman told reporters online bulletin boards should be controlled more tightly in the wake of such incidents as the Isaacs postings.
The Trafficmasters worker in question—whose identity was not disclosed—had obtained minutes of management board meetings in 2003, and Isaacs is believed to have read and memorized those minutes off the worker’s kitchen table. The minutes covered meetings of August 4 and September 8 of that year.
Isaacs cooperated with an FSA investigation, which revealed he bought more Trafficmasters shares on four dates in September 2003.
