JAKARTA (BLOOMBERG) - Carlyle Group LP fired Rajiv Louis, its first Indonesia-based dealmaker, after the former UBS Group AG executive was sanctioned for insider trading, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Louis, who was a Carlyle managing director, agreed to pay a civil penalty of S$434,912 without court action, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said Wednesday. While working as UBS's head of Indonesia in 2012, the banker made a profit of S$173,965 trading shares of PT Bank Danamon Indonesia through his wife's Singapore bank account, after obtaining non-public information on the proposed acquisition of Danamon by DBS Group Holdings Ltd., the MAS said.
It's the first time an investment banker has been named in an insider-trading investigation since the Singaporean central bank started publishing formal regulatory actions on its website in 2006. The MAS has been seeking to beef up its ability to police market misconduct and made proposals in August that included raising the amount of penalties levied from offenders.
Louis's case "demonstrates the very broad scope of the insider-trading provisions and the extensive reach that MAS can have," said Mak Yuen Teen, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's Business School. "There is still a lot of concern in our market about significant price and volume changes prior to major announcements." Among its August proposals, the central bank also called for its enforcement officers to be given the same crime-fighting powers as financial police, including searching for and seizing evidence.
Jakarta Office Singapore introduced its civil-penalty regime for insider trading in 2004. The current maximum penalty is either S$50,000 or three times the profit earned from the offense, whichever of those is higher. In April, the MAS said a man and his niece paid a total of S$11.8 million in penalties for insider and false trading.
Louis joined Carlyle in 2013, and opened the Washington- based firm's office in Jakarta the following year. Carlyle wasn't aware he was being investigated for insider trading until the settlement was announced, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Chris Ullman, a Carlyle spokesman, declined to comment on personnel matters.
Louis didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
He had worked at Zurich-based UBS for almost 10 years, and previously held roles at Salomon Smith Barney, Schroders Plc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to a biography on Carlyle's website. He's a graduate of the University of California at Davis.
Carlyle, founded in 1987, manages $193 billion in private equity holdings, real estate, credit assets and hedge funds.
