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The former Janus Henderson analyst accused of operating an insider-trading ring involving his personal trainer said he gave the instructor £20,000 because he “felt sorry for him” during the coronavirus pandemic.
Redinel Korfuzi, 37, told London jurors on Wednesday that he had been concerned that Rogerio de Aquino, 63, planned to use part of a Covid-19 “bounce back” loan guaranteed by the UK government to trade financial instruments, and that he “didn’t want him to end up in trouble”.
Prosecutors at the Financial Conduct Authority have accused Korfuzi of using homeworking during the pandemic as cover to run an insider-trading syndicate — which included de Aquino — that netted almost £1mn through illegal bets on share prices in 2020 and 2021.
The FCA said the network exploited information that Korfuzi gleaned from his job at fund manager Janus Henderson about forthcoming fundraisings by listed companies including Jet2, Hargreaves Lansdown and THG.
The insider dealing was conducted not in Korfuzi’s own name but in that of other members of the ring including de Aquino, who lived at a nearby flat to Korfuzi and set up a trading account with IG, prosecutors have claimed.
Cross examining Korfuzi at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, Adam Kane KC, representing de Aquino, put it to the former analyst that he had told the personal trainer that he “would be in charge of the trading” and agreed to put “£20,000 of [his] own money in”.
But Korfuzi, who denies any wrongdoing, said the barrister had “misrepresented” what happened.
“I simply wanted to help a man who I deemed as a friend at a grave time of difficulty,” the defendant said, adding that de Aquino had been “depressed” as lockdown restrictions had led him to be in financial difficulties. “I felt sorry for him.”
The court was shown a transcript of a call between de Aquino and trading platform IG, in which the personal trainer said a “client of mine” had advised him to open the account.
Kane put it to Korfuzi that he had suggested to de Aquino that he put his Covid bounce back loan “to work” by trading in a financial investment account “that you’d look after”.
“Absolutely not correct,” Korfuzi replied. He said he had not discussed any confidential insider information with de Aquino.
Korfuzi was later quizzed by the FCA’s barrister, Tom Forster KC, about a series of meetings that Korfuzi said he had with various men around London, in which the defendant said he had received tens of thousands of pounds in cash while he was working at Janus Henderson.
Korfuzi said he had received the money on behalf of his father’s business in Albania. He previously told the court that it was “very, very normal” for an Albanian person to receive and pay for things in cash and the money was “absolutely not” from any criminal activity.
“My father would say go collect, and I would collect,” he said.
Forster asked the defendant about the details of one such encounter, which Korfuzi had said took place in Enfield, including whether he had counted the cash. Korfuzi said he had not.
“It’s absurd, isn’t it?” the barrister said. Korfuzi replied: “You are making it sound absurd, but it’s a very common event.”
The four defendants in the case, who also include Korfuzi’s sister Oerta Korfuzi, 36, and de Aquino’s girlfriend Dema Almeziad, 40, are all charged with one count of insider dealing and one count of money laundering.
The defendants deny the charges and the case continues.
