Employees of "Deutsche Bank" AG, "Exane" SA and "Moore Capital Management" LLC Em (the British Division) are under investigation amid suspicion that they have used confidential information to manipulate markets.
On Tuesday, six people were arrested, after the Financial Services Authority (the UK market watchdog) raided several addresses. The FSA did not release the names or other details of the individuals that were arrested.
Hedge fund "Moore Capital" said that its headquarters was searched on Tuesday, and "Deutsche Bank" said that one of its employees was interrogated. Officials of "Exane" (a branch of "BNP Paribas" SA) said that one of their employees was interrogated.
None of the companies involved released the names of the employees accused of inside trading, but said that they were cooperating with the investigations.
The FSA said: "We believe that the traders received confidential information - either directly from professionals or from intermediaries, and made significant profits by trading based on it".