Exclusive: Lib Dem Daisy Cooper says ex-minister could have ‘abused trading laws’ when sharing state information with Jeffrey Epstein
The Liberal Democrats have urged the UK’s financial regulator to immediately investigate Peter Mandelson, saying his apparent decision to leak highly confidential government information to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein may have led to insider trading.
In a letter to Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Daisy Cooper, the MP for St Albans and the Lib Dems’ deputy leader, said it was “crucial” to determine whether Mandelson or those he shared information with had profited from accessing “market-sensitive and confidential material” in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
“The sharing of confidential information with a private financier could easily have provided an unfair and lucrative advantage in the financial markets, either by Epstein himself or by his associates,” Cooper said in the letter, seen by the Guardian. “Mandelson could also have personally profited from this arrangement.”
She added: “He and others must face criminal prosecution if they are found to have abused trading laws for financial benefit.”
