Soros loses insider trading appeal

Billionaire investor George Soros has lost his appeal to have a 2002 conviction for insider trading of Société Générale shares thrown out, the Telegraph reports.

81-year old Soros was fined €2.2m euros (£1.9m) in 2002 for trading insider information in the French bank.

The appeal was put to the European Court of Human Rights, who ruled against Soros after a lengthy nine-year battle to have the conviction overturned.

He argued trading regulations were too ambiguous, but failed to convince the court.

The court said Soros was a "famous institutional investor, well-known to the business community" and "could not have been unaware that his decision to invest in shares in [Société Générale] entailed the risk that he might be committing the offence of insider trading," the Telegraph reports.

However, one victory for Soros was the court's decision not to pursue criminal charges against him, as prosecutors had attempted.

Soros' lawyer, Ron Soffer, said his client would appeal the judgment. He now has three months to lodge his appeal.