London investment banker lovers who called each other ‘Pops’ and ‘Popsy’ ‘pocketed $1million in huge international insider trading scheme’
- Benjamin Taylor and Darina Windsor allegedly passed on insider information
- Prosecutors claim they received $1million in cash, trips and luxury watches
- They lived together in a London apartment and were in a romantic relationship
Two investment banker lovers who called each other ‘Pops’ and ‘Popsy’ have been charged in the U.S. for allegedly pocketing $1million from an insider trading scheme while working in London.
Benjamin Taylor and Darina Windsor, who shared an apartment in the UK, are accused of taking part in a ‘large-scale, international insider trading ring’.
Prosecutors claim in a court document that the couple sold insider information to middlemen in exchange for more than $1million of benefits including cash, trips and luxury watches.
Taylor and Windsor both had ‘access to material, non-public information’ about corporate transactions, prosecutors allege.
London’s financial district where Benjamin Taylor and Darina Windsor allegedly took part in a ‘large-scale, international insider trading ring’
They worked at separate banks in London, where they lived together and were ‘involved in a romantic relationship’.
Windsor worked at Centerview and was fired in 2016 for ‘misconduct’.
‘We confirm that the individual – once a junior employee in Centerview’s London office – was terminated close to four years ago for misconduct,’ a company spokesman said.
‘We are cooperating with the authorities on this matter. Maintaining our clients’ confidentiality is paramount and something we are focused on every day.’
According to Bloomberg, Taylor worked at Moelis & Company, which is based in New York. The firm said it had co-operated with law enforcement.
According to an indictment by Manhattan prosecutors the pair sent each other cryptic emails in which they referred to each other as ‘Pops’ and ‘Popsy’ and sent insider information.
One email was titled ‘Once upon a time, there was a Pops searching for Truffles in the Forest’ and had confidential details attached to it.
The pair could access files about transactions whether or not they were working on those cases themselves, it is claimed.
Taylor allegedly used temporary ‘burner’ phones to conceal his relationship with the middlemen.
Using the information that Taylor and Windsor allegedly provided, one of the middlemen, based in Switzerland, is also said to have leaked details to journalists in the hope of influencing stock prices.
The couple are accused of leaking information about 22 named companies including metals and pharmaceutical firms.
The middlemen are not named in the indictment.
Windsor ‘created a spreadsheet to forecast how illegal proceeds would be split’ between her, Taylor and one of the middlemen, it is claimed.
The total conspiracy is claimed by prosecutors to have been worth tens of millions of dollars to the middlemen and securities traders who used the information.
Taylor left his bank in 2015 and Windsor was fired by hers in 2016 but Taylor allegedly continued to receive insider information after that.