FCA: Investment and fund manager banned 

On 20 October 2016 the Tribunal upheld the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) decision to ban Tariq Carrimjee of Somerset Asset Management LLP (Somerset) from carrying out the compliance oversight and money laundering reporting significant influence functions. 

The Tribunal’s decision was issued following a hearing in September 2016.

Mr Carrimjee was an investment and fund manager who held senior positions at Somerset at the relevant time and was responsible for compliance oversight.  In an earlier decision issued on 4 March 2015 the Tribunal found that Mr Carrimjee had failed to act with due skill, care and diligence in failing to escalate the risk that his client, Rameshkumar Goenka, might have been intending to engage in market manipulation, and that this risk should have been apparent to Mr Carrimjee.  The Tribunal imposed a penalty of £89,004 on Mr Carrimjee. It also remitted part of the case back to the Authority to reconsider and reach a decision as to the extent of any ban in accordance with its findings.

In November 2015 the Authority imposed a partial ban on Mr Carrimjee relating to the compliance oversight and money laundering reporting significant influence functions and Mr Carrimjee then referred that decision to the Tribunal.

The Tribunal was required to consider the extent of its jurisdiction and the standard of review it should conduct as well as evidence of the steps Mr Carrimjee had taken since the Authority’s decision to impose a partial ban.

The Tribunal made a number of findings including that his failure to spot the warning signs of market abuse were “basic, fundamental and serious”.

The Tribunal concluded that the Authority’s decision to impose a partial ban was one that was reasonably open to the Authority to make.  It remains open to the parties to appeal this judgment.

Source: FCA

---