The Financial Services Board reports that the Enforcement Committee, established in terms of the Securities Services Act (the Act), at a hearing on 30 and 31 October 2007 considered a case against a Mr Michael Berman, the key individual of a financial services provider, namely Velocity Trading (Pty) Limited; and Mr Neil Stacey, a registered securities trader and the Head of Sales Trading at HSBC Securities SA (Pty) Limited, an authorised user of the JSE Limited.
The case was referred to the Enforcement Committee by the Directorate of Market Abuse after an investigation was conducted into certain share transactions in Ifour Properties Limited and SA Retail Properties Limited.
The respondents were charged with contravening section 75 of the Act (using or participating in a manipulative, improper, false or deceptive trading practice).
The Enforcement Committee found that both respondents had contravened section 75 and imposed a penalty of R2 million on each respondent. The full judgment is available on the FSB website at www.fsb.co.za.
Earlier this year, the Registrar of Financial Services Providers withdrew the authorisation of Velocity Trading (Pty) Limited to render services as an investment manager. The withdrawal was on the basis that Mr Berman was not fit and proper to hold such an authorisation and resulted from the same investigation mentioned above.
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