GLG Partners’s Esprey Said to Be Among People Arrested by FSA

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Carl Esprey, who has worked as a portfolio manager at GLG Partners Inc., was one of the three employees arrested yesterday in London on suspicion of insider trading, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Esprey, 33, was detained and questioned about trades he made as a private individual, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information hasn’t been publicly disclosed. He joined Man Group Plc’s GLG unit in January 2008 as a portfolio manager for its European Long-Short Fund, according to a July 2012 press release issued by the company.

The investigation is part of the push by the Financial Services Authority to crack down on insider trading by employees at London’s biggest financial companies after previously targeting lower-profile individuals. The U.K. regulator arrested five people including a Schroders Plc equity trader in another insider-trading investigation last month.

Esprey didn’t respond to e-mails sent to his GLG address and he couldn’t be reached on his mobile phone. FSA spokesman Joseph Eyre declined to comment on the identity of the three people arrested. Man Group Chief Executive Emmanuel Roman also declined to comment, when asked about the investigation of the employee on a conference call with reporters today.

Esprey is now listed as “inactive” on the FSA register of people approved to hold positions in the finance industry after being shown as “active” as recently as yesterday. Before joining GLG in London, he worked in the corporate-finance department of BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, the GLG statement showed.

GLG last year appointed Esprey to a team of traders focused on investing in Asia, the statement said. Esprey was identified as the team’s “materials specialist.”

Man Group confirmed that one of its employees had been arrested by the FSA in an e-mail sent yesterday. The investigation regards the person’s “actions as a private individual and not as an employee of Man Group or GLG,” it said. Man Group said it suspended the employee and had cooperated with the FSA’s probe.

--Editors: Simone Meier, Heather Smith