FBI joins Heinz share trades investigation

[Gerald]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is joining an investigation into suspicious trades ahead of the Heinz takeover deal last week.

The US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is already suing unnamed traders for insider dealing.

Last Thursday, Heinz was bought for $23bn by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway fund and 3G Capital.

Unusual trading activity in the shares was noticed the previous day.

"The FBI is aware of trading anomalies the day before Heinz's announcement" a spokesman said. "The FBI is consulting with the SEC to determine if a crime was committed."

The SEC believes that some traders knew about the takeover before it was announced and made $1.7m from the knowledge. It obtained an emergency court order to freeze assets in a Swiss-based account.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21516258

It seems that some have earned good on this deal.


Note: 20 February 2013 Last updated at 10:05 GMT