UK 19:02 Friday, 23 October 2026
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Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from ShareProphets). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
The chocolate teapots that are the SFO/FCA have prosecuted just 46 people for insider dealing and 29 have been found guilty and not one has been sent to prison. But the scale of Rob Terry’s Quindell crimes mean he should be the first. I suggest he face the maximum 7 year prison stretch and a fine of £19 million (fines can be unlimited) – the question is how many times has he dealt on inside knowledge.
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Comments
Jane
Dead right! People go to jail for not paying their tv licence or for stealing a couple of bottles of water. But don’t hold your breath, this is UK after all, no bankers have gone or will go to jail, just about all the financial markets have been rigged one way or another, the whole system is putrid to the core. Next competition, “guess Rob Terry’s punishment”? Be sure to include a “gets off scotfree” option.
the mad accountant
Tom – like you I’d love to see Robber Terry sent down and his ill-gotten gains taken away, but my fear (based on SFO & FCA history) is that he’ll get away with the equivalent of a rap on the knuckles.
Simon
The problem is proving this. A good barrister will say that all the RNS releases were well qualified with warnings as to the final accuracy. In relation to his share sales, until it is proved otherwise, he must have got approval from the board to sell stock (as all directors of listed companies do) so the board as a whole would be guilty if this was Insider trading.
If the exact definition of insider trading has been broken I would be surprised. I am sure that he is clever enough to have avoided such a charge on a technicality.
Phil
Could be worse, could have been scamming job seekers allowance putting a couple of hours in on the side, now that really would be serious.
The reality is the political will isn’t up for it, with such a narrow banded GDP towards financial services it is, turn a blind eye, and when you get complete arseholes like Peter Hain getting on boards, the deal is pretty much done.
Notwithstanding, the task on unwinding the frauds within Quenron and with Terry has been an outstanding success, taking into account the target audience on this website is private shareholders.
We all now have far more insight into how it is done, how to recognize it, what we ourselves can do about it (get out), and perhaps above all we are pretty much on our our own. Not to expect the regulators to be on our side. In my own case it shows my knowledge of balance sheets is woefully lacking, something I am already working on.
I think it is forensic investigative journalism of the first order, and I congratulate TW and the site. I am enjoying the story and others, and I am pleased I found the site. Despite buying a small stake in Quenron, it caused me to find this site, so in those terms buying and selling Quenron has been a good move. Funny old world.
Bigriver
Simon is right; I have worked as a lawyer in M&A for many years and the wording of the Quindell statements has been very carefully done to allow considerable wiggle room, except the disguised sale which seems to be a gaff. That said, it would be interesting to see if a jury would allow this lot to wriggle out of doing a stretch, assuming of course that the “authorities” charge anyone. A pity there isn’t a US angle on this – the authorities there would crucify someone for this sort of behaviour.
John
Personally I’d like to see the whole of the Swindell board in the dock. At best the others around RT were incompetent at worst this was a conspiracy. Testing this in court is the fairest way to go. I don’t have much faith that this will happen though.
poyet
lock Rob Terry up!!!
Dominic Cooper
Bigriver has a point. The fact is that very little of what has come out is actually from insider information, or sources. The vast majority is simply published data and RNSs. The information was in black and white for all to see. This was not an undercover fraud, but was a blatant series of actions which the investors chose to ignore.
It will probably go down in history as the Terry Defence
‘Well, Your Honour, it does appear that Steamy has lost a lot of money, and that my client, Mr Terry has gained thereby. But that would be an incorrect analysis. He never told Steamy to “top up at these crazy level”. He did that all by himself. He never said that Quindell was going to have £860million of cash in its bank – it was clear in black and white that this was accrued profit; if the idiots choose not to read properly, that’s their fault. In fact, Your Honour, many commentators, including Mr Winnifrith, told everyone what was going on. If QPPSAG, K3VSCM, QPP100000, SCOUSER, et al chose to imagine he was part of a jewish / cia global conspiracy, that is their choice.
In my submission therefore, Your Honour, Mr Terry may have pulled a fast one, but he didn’t cause the idiots to lose their money – they did that all by themselves’