“Konstantin Vishnyak, a former VTB Capital Plc banker, who deleted his Whatsapp messages while he was under police surveillance was acquitted by a London jury. It was dealing a blow to the Financial Conduct Authority’s pursuit of insider dealing”, as reported by NDTV.
“Prosecutors at the FCA had alleged that the 42-year-old banker removed the application knowing that it might be relevant to an insider-trading investigation.” Vishnyak was later found not guilty.
Vishnyak said it repeatedly that he had deleted the messages because he was scared that he would be unnecessarily be dragged into a “political scandal” if his links with a Russian suspect in a British murder investigation were disclosed.
The agency has pursued the lesser charge of deleting the texts. In a statement, the FCA said it was “disappointed with the outcome, but respects the verdict. We will take action whenever evidence we need is tampered with or destroyed.”
Rachel Barnes, the attorney for the agency, said during the questioning, “You deleted the Whatsapp chat under the noses of the police. You throw the FCA off the scent in the interview. This is taking a risk isn’t it.”
These chats contained linkages with Andrei Lugovoi, a politician who’s wanted by British cops for the poisoning of former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko, who was given a fatal dose of radioactive polonium in his tea in a London restaurant in 2006.
Henry Milner, Vishnyak’s lawyer, said, “British juries do not transact their business on suspicion. My client’s case was that his deletions were private matters, nothing to do with shares or insider dealing, and the prosecution was unable to prove otherwise.”
FCA had earlier suspected that Vishnyak was receiving trading tips from a group of Moscow friends, including the best man at his wedding. By this, he earned about 3.78 million pounds. FCA has now confirmed that the Vishnyak investigation had nothing to do with the Russian bank.
