The two-year investigation into the trading activities of Philippe Jabre, a former director of GLG Partners, one of Europe’s largest hedge f...

The two-year investigation into the trading activities of Philippe Jabre, a former director of GLG Partners, one of Europe’s largest hedge funds, could be unraveled in public if he opts for an appeal before the UK-based Financial Services and Markets Tribunal. A tribunal hearing to potentially clear Mr Jabre’s name may have repercussions for Goldman Sachs, which was in communication with him concerning the trades, according to press reports. Mr Jabre could be fined and be barred from trading over the 2003 convertible-bond deal involving Sumitomo of Japan and non-public information from Goldman Sachs, which he is alleged to have used improperly, according to a report in The Times. GLG may also face a fine for not monitoring its fund manger’s activities. The Financial Services Authority’s putative claim is that GLG made $480,000 on insider trades after Goldman told the hedge fund the Japanese bank planned to sell up to $3 billion in preferred stock. If the regulator’s decision, which could be made as early as this week, goes against Mr Jabre, he will be able to appeal to the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal, which has been critical of the FSA in the past and has caused the regulator considerable embarrassment. A spokesman for the tribunal said it had received no reference to Mr Jabre as yet. A controversial note of Goldman’s summarising conversations between Mr Jabre and a salesman is believed to have left it unclear whether he could continue trading in Sumitomo after the conversations. GLG, which was founded in 1995 as a division of Lehman Brothers, currently has about $11.5 billion under management. Its management team of Noam Gottesman, Pierre Lagrange and Emmanuel Roman bought the company out in 2005. Each of the four directors owns 20 per cent of the company and Lehman Brothers has a 15 per cent stake. Mr Gottesman was estimated to be worth around £200 million ($352.4 million), according to The Sunday Times Rich List 2005.