The law enforcement authorities arrested a 47-year-old in Munich in connection with insider trading worth millions in company takeovers.
The man has been in custody since January 18 due to an arrest warrant, the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the financial supervisory authority Bafin announced on Thursday.
Since November 2021, five suspects have been investigated on suspicion of violating the Securities Trading Act.
Between 2017 and 2021, the suspects, aged between 41 and 82, are said to have used insider knowledge about upcoming company takeovers for transactions in shares and derivatives.
Securities of the target company bought shortly before the takeover are said to have been sold again at a profit after the takeover bids were published.
"According to the current state of knowledge, proceeds in the tens of millions could be achieved through the sale of the share values after the takeover bids became known," said the investigators.
As part of the investigation, premises in Frankfurt am Main, Munich and the greater Munich area were searched on January 17 and 18 of this year.
On January 25th and 26th there were further searches in Great Britain and Austria.
The investigations were started by a report by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin).