Perella Weinberg Partners LP London headquarters was searched as part of a German Insider Trading Investigation.
Officials searched the investment bank on January 25. According to sources familiar with the matter, Frankfurt prosecutors are investigating allegations that a London-based employee of the bank divulged information about planned takeovers and other suspects trading on those. They said Perella Weinberg had suspended the employee.
- German investigators investigate one London-based employee
- An investment bank is not being accused of wrongdoing.
Frankfurt prosecutors announced on Thursday that one arrest was made in connection with an investigation into five suspects from November 2021. The suspects are being investigated over claims they used insider information to gain access to takeovers that occurred between 2017 and 2021. According to a joint statement by Bafin, Germany’s financial regulator, and the investigators, the suspects made a “two-digit million euro” amount selling company shares prior to the takeovers becoming public.
Perella Weinberg’s spokesperson said that the firm was assisting in a German law enforcement authority investigation. “The investigation is not focusing on the firm, and there are no indications of wrongdoing.”
The spokesperson for Metropolitan Police Service stated that warrants were executed on behalf of German authorities at Westminster and at a residential address in west London. London was not the scene of any arrests.
Frankfurt prosecutors claimed that they had arrested a suspect aged 47 as part of their probe. All five people being investigated were Germans. Raids were also carried out in Frankfurt, Munich, and the surrounding area of Munich’s capital Bavaria as well as Austria.
