The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced it has fined former Aviva investment analyst Mothahir Miah £139,000 following his exploitation of weaknesses in trading systems at Aviva Investors.
Miah has also been banned from performing any regulated activity in financial services for five years.
Between January 2010 and October 2012 Miah failed to act with ‘honesty and integrity’, using a practice known as ‘cherry picking’. He was found to have been deliberately delaying the booking and allocating of trades in order to benefit from favourable price movements to hedge funds that paid performance fees on trades.
The penalties would have reportedly been higher had it not been for Miah’s co-operation and admission of guilt.
“Mr Miah abused the trust given to him by his clients in a very clear and deliberate way. It is vital that Approved Persons operate with honesty and integrity at all times. Mr Miah did not, said the FCA’s enforcement director, Mark Steward.
“We have taken into account that Mr Miah admitted his misconduct at a very early stage to both Aviva Investors and the FCA and showed remorse for his actions.”
As a result of Miah’s actions, Aviva Investors was also required to pay compensation to a number of funds as well as receiving a £17.6 million fine from the FCA.