Santander analyst made trades before bid: SEC

A Banco Santander SA analyst and an accomplice illegally reaped almost $1.1 million with insider trades before BHP Billiton Ltd’s $39 billion takeover bid for Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc, US regulators said.

Juan Jose Fernandez Garcia and Luis Martin Caro Sanchez used accounts at the same US brokerage to buy more than $61,000 in Potash stock options days before BHP’s offer became public on August 17, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in documents filed on August 20 in federal court in Illinois. Fernandez Garcia heads the bank’s European equity derivatives research, according to the agency’s complaint.

The men “tried to move offshore highly suspicious trading profits made just a few days before,” said Daniel Hawke, who leads a group at the SEC that polices market abuse, in a statement yesterday. “We will act swiftly and decisively to deny wrongdoers the profits of their illegal activity.”

Santander provisionally suspended Fernandez Garcia while inquiries continue, the bank said in a statement sent by e-mail.

“The bank has acted at all times following the appropriate procedures,” Santander said. “We are awaiting the results of both our internal and the supervisors’ investigations, with whom the bank will cooperate.”

The SEC said it doesn’t know of lawyers representing the defendants. An e-mail to Fernandez Garcia was answered with an automated reply saying he will be out of office until September 9. A phone number for Caro Sanchez couldn’t immediately be found.