Keydata's Ford wins High Court case against FSA

Stewart Ford, the founder of Keydata, today won a landmark High Court judgment against the FSA when the judicial review he brought against the regulator concluded the FSA acted unlawfully in its use of legally privileged material in its enforcement investigation.

The FSA has previously been censured by a judicial review only with respect to action it took at the request of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is the first time an FSA own-initiated investigation has been the subject of a successful judicial review. Ford secured leave to take the FSA to judicial review in March this year over the regulator's use of legally privileged emails from Keydata's and Ford's former legal advisers, Irwin Mitchell. The FSA obtained the emails, which contained legal advice and attendance notes of meetings with Irwin Mitchell and counsel,...