Those charged with involvement in the conspiracy, between November 2006 and March 2010, include Martyn Dodgson, a Deutsche Bank corporate adviser; Ben Anderson, a private stock broker; Iraj Parvizi, an Iranian-born businessman and investor in small-cap stocks; and Andrew Hind, a director of Deskspace Offices. The four are alleged to have made a profit of £3m from their trading.
The wider investigation, carried out jointly with the Serious Organised Crime Agency, had been examining a suspected insider trading ring said to have traded up to £22m. Companies whose share trading has been under scrutiny include Scottish & Newcastle, National Express, Petrofac, Wolseley, Collins Stewart, Barclays and Paragon.
The City regulator has pursued a string of insider dealing cases since admitting in 2008 that its light touch approach to policing the Square Mile was failing. But Operation Tabernula is by far the most significant case – both in terms of the people allegedly involved, the hedge funds and banks they worked for and the sums allegedly traded.
In a short statement confirming Monday's charges, the FSA added: "A number of individuals remain under investigation."
The four men charged were among nine individuals who have been arrested and questioned as part of Operation Tabernula since a series of co-ordinated dawn raids on 16 addresses across London and the south-east in March 2010. At the time of the searches seven men were arrested, including the four charged on Monday.
Since then a further two individuals have been arrested and questioned as part of the inquiry.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
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