Swiss authorities are reportedly investigating whether insider trading took place in the hours and days preceding the news release of the Holcim -Lafarge merger agreement. The inquiry is the first notable of its kind following recent modifications to the penal code to better address insider trading and align Swiss securities laws to those of the rest of the developed world. A little known fact, Switzerland for decades did not prosecute insider trading, banking secrecy also allowed insider traders the world over to shield themselves from prosecution. Even today with the new legal framework, only trades yielding profits of more than 1 million will be prosecuted (1 million I suppose not being a large amount of money in Switzerland), likewise FX and commodity futures transactions on the basis of inside information are still not addressed by the penal code. This continues to make the law a parody considering the difficulty of insider trading cases and the likelihood of actually being prosecuted in Switzerland. As some commentary still implies in the media, insider trading continues to be viewed as cheating the rules but not as a serious white-collar crime to be punished with long jail sentences.
More on the subject in this article by Le Temps :
http://www.letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/c58bc826-9faa-11e2-bfe5-7a9ddd8fe1ac%7C0
Holcim's stock rose steadily in the days preceding the merger news, although the SMI did too, this could indicate insider trading activity. Options data may reveal valuable information as insiders often use options to maximize leverage on their surething bet.
