The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) took away the licenses of two investment advisers and suspended for a year a securities broker. The guilty parties were involved in leaking and using confidential information regarding the financial results of gas monopolist PGNiG.

The information that the company's results for Q2 2008 were worse than expected was revealed before the results were officially published on August 13, 2008.

On August 6, 2008 the value of PGNiG's shares dropped by 7.73 percent.

The KNF determined that the sell-off resulted from traders receiving the leaked information. The confidential information was passed on by telephone from a representative of the company's investor relations department to an employee of an investment firm. Subsequently, the information was distributed among the representatives of companies selling PGNiG shares.

The two punished investment advisers worked for Millennium TFI and BRE Wealth Management. The broker involved in the case, whose license was suspended for a year, worked for BRE Bank's brokerage house.

That is not, however, the end of the affair. The KNF is conducting seven other investigations and the case is also being examined by prosecutors.

Poland AM