The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has concluded proceedings for violation of market conduct rules against listed private equity giant Blackstone and one of its directors.

FINMA investigated repeated purchases of Blackstock shares and determined these were made in order to manipulatively boost the share price.

FINMA also found entries in the order book that had no demonstrable economic background. Additionally, FINMA determined that Blackrock made repeated statements in a manner that could influence the share price.

Breaches of disclosure obligations

FINMA established that a director of the company only corrected the notification of his own holdings when pressed to do so by FINMA. In addition, Blackstone calculated and reported its own shares incorrectly and thereby breached disclosure obligations.

Findings

FINMA finds Blackstock  has committed market manipulation and breaches of disclosure. It should be noted that Blackstock is not an institution supervised by FINMA, and that the investigation was part of general market supervision.

The ruling is still subject to appeal.