Nick Bayley, UK Head of Duff & Phelps’ Compliance and Regulatory Consulting practice comments:

“Interesting, that in reaching this outcome the FCA has taken into account the Company’s decision to initiate its own scheme to compensate the individual investors who lost money as a result of the false market that existed in Redcentric shares for about a year.  The only similar investor compensation scheme we have previously seen in the UK related to the Tesco false accounting debacle in 2014.”

“This public sanction against Redcentric is really just a side-show.  The main event is the potential criminal trial of three former employees of Redcentric Plc, who are scheduled to appear in court in August.  Those individuals will be facing not just criminal market manipulation charges under FSMA but also charges of false accounting and fraud under the Theft Act, Fraud Act and Companies Act.  Typically these latter offences are matters for the Police or the SFO, as they were in the Tesco case, although the FCA also does have the power to prosecute them itself.”

Before joining Duff & Phelps as a managing director in 2016, Nick’s was Head of Regulation at the London Stock Exchange (including during 2008/2009 crisis), and Head of Department for the FCA’s Markets Policy and International Division.