The FCA has published a final notice prohibiting inter-dealer broker Anthony Verrier, a former senior executive at BGC Brokers LP from performing any function relating to any regulated activity because it considers that he is not a fit and proper person due to concerns over his integrity.
The FCA based the facts and matters in the final notice on the High Court's findings in its judgment in the case of Tullett Prebon plc (and two others) v BGC Brokers LP (and 13 others, including Verrier), [2010] EWHC 484 (QB). Mr Verrier was found to have participated in an unlawful means conspiracy, the unlawful means including the inducement of certain Tullett brokers to breach their contracts of employment with Tullett by leaving early without lawful justification. Mr Verrier was originally a senior executive at Tullett, who had left to join BCG.
The case is unusual as it is the first time that the FCA has attempted to ban an individual based on a commercial court judge's findings in a civil case concerning the poaching of staff from a rival firm. Disputes between financial services firms over alleged staff poaching are fairly common. The findings in this case should therefore act as a warning to those FCA approved persons considering poaching individuals and whole teams from rival firms. It can also be viewed as a lesson in the FCA's expectations of firms' professional standards of conduct and further demonstrates that the FCA will expand its supervisory and enforcement reach as far as it can.
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