AMF France v. A (insider trading, 2008)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 5, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, in a single reading of the French decision; an independent second reading of 60 of the AMF records agreed on every field for 54 and on the core fields for 59. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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On 26 June 2008 the Commission des sanctions found that the managing partner of an asset manager had sold shares of HF Company on 27 June and 3 July 2006 after learning at a broker's meeting of an unannounced stock write-off, and fined him EUR 200,000.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

—

Penalty as published

€200k

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars. This regulator states penalties in EUR. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

The second section of the Commission des sanctions decided this matter on 26 June 2008 on a notification of grievances to A, the managing partner of asset manager X. The issuer was HF Company, a maker of high-frequency reception equipment whose shares were listed on Euronext.

The decision records that on 27 June 2006 the company's chief executive took part in a meeting at a broker with fund managers and analysts, including a colleague of A. According to participants, he said that stocks of digital-TV adapters were too large and earned a negative margin, so a significant exceptional provision was needed. Minutes later A placed repeated orders to sell 20,000 shares, of which 5,465 were executed, about 85 per cent of the day's volume. The broker's salesmen then reminded him the information was privileged and his firm put the share on a ban list.

On 3 July 2006, shortly before the company published a profit warning, A confirmed an order to sell a 35,000-share block at EUR 31.94. The share fell 36.6 per cent the next day. The Commission found that the content of the calls, the ban-list entry and the broker's reminder showed A knew he held inside information, and that his attempt to postpone the block sale until after the release made no difference. It held both the 27 June and 3 July sales established.

It noted that the sales let X, in which A holds 49.5 per cent, avoid a loss that could have reached EUR 464,000, and imposed a EUR 200,000 financial penalty on A.

This record does not show whether the company's chief executive faced any proceeding, or whether the decision was appealed.

This library tags the matter as insider trading. The tagging is ours, not the regulator’s.

For the regulator’s own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the decision.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Insider trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2008-06-26 Commission des sanctions decision

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• AMF decision page
• Decision (PDF, French)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added October 5, 2026. submit a correction.