The defendant, Andreas T., is accused of nine counts of insider trading. The public prosecutor’s office is demanding a total prison sentence of seven years and three months. The former publishing manager acted over a very long period of time, with a high level of criminal energy and in a commercial manner, said Markus Weimann, head of the public prosecutor’s office for economic crime in Hesse, in his plea before the Frankfurt regional court. In addition, very large sums were involved. From 2017 to 2021, the defendant earned around 24 million in income from stock transactions in connection with company takeovers. After deducting the costs, the defendant was left with a profit of 13 million euros. The fact that the defendant did not have a criminal record and had partially confessed could have a mitigating effect on the sentence, according to the prosecution. The proceedings have been heard in the 12th Large Criminal Chamber of the Frankfurt Regional Court since the beginning of the year.
Insider trading occurs when someone has advance information that moves stock market prices and exploits it to make money themselves. Insider trading is prohibited, but the penalty now required would still be comparatively high. In 2022, the Frankfurt regional court had so far been in Germany maximum prison sentence pronounced in an insider case: A former banker was sentenced to a total prison sentence of three years and eight months for multiple insider trading cases. The current process has been followed in many banks and companies. It is one of the most spectacular cases of suspected insider trading in Germany. The defendant had received his information from a now-deceased investment banker at the Perella Weinberg consulting boutique in London. The defendant’s defense lawyers demanded that the prison sentence should not exceed three years.