FINAL NOTICE





To:

Stewart Owen Ford


IRN:
SOF01000


Date:
16 January 2019


1.
ACTION

For the reasons given in this Final Notice, the Authority hereby:

imposes on Stewart Owen Ford, pursuant to section 66 of the Financial
Services and Markets Act 2000 (“the Act”), a financial penalty of £76 million;
and

makes an order which takes effect from the date of this Final Notice, pursuant
to section 56 of the Act, prohibiting Mr Ford from performing any function in
relation to any regulated activity carried on by an authorised person, exempt
person or exempt professional firm.

2.
REASONS FOR ACTION

By a decision notice dated 7 November 2014, the Authority notified Mr Ford that it
had decided to impose on him a financial penalty for failing to act with integrity (in
breach of Statement of Principle 1) and for failing to deal with the Authority in an
open and cooperative way (in breach of Statement of Principle 4) between 26 July
2005 and 8 June 2009. During that period, Mr Ford held the controlled functions
CF1 (director), CF3 (chief executive) and (until 31 October 2007) CF8
(apportionment and oversight) in respect of Keydata Investment Services Ltd.

By the same decision notice, the Authority notified Mr Ford that it had decided to
make an order prohibiting him from performing any function in relation to any
regulated activity carried on by an authorised person, exempt person or exempt
professional firm (“the prohibition order”).

On 4 December 2014, Mr Ford referred the decision notice to the Upper Tribunal
(Tax and Chancery Chamber) (“the Tribunal”). The Tribunal released a written
decision in respect of this reference on 6 November 2018. This decision can be
found on the Tribunal’s website at:

Stewart Owen Ford and Mark John Owen v The Financial Conduct Authority: [2018]
UKUT 0358 (TCC)

The Tribunal determined that the appropriate action for the Authority to take was
to impose on Mr Ford a financial penalty of £76 million and remitted the reference
to the Authority with a direction to impose a penalty on Mr Ford in that amount.
The Tribunal dismissed the reference of Mr Ford in respect of the prohibition order.

In light of the above and in accordance with the Tribunal’s direction, the Authority
has issued this Final Notice.

3.
PROCEDURAL MATTERS

This Final Notice is given under, and in accordance with, section 390 of the Act.

Manner of and time for payment

The financial penalty must be paid in full by Mr Ford to the Authority by no later
than 1 February 2019, 16 days from the date of this Final Notice.

If the financial penalty is not paid

If all or any of the financial penalty is outstanding on 2 February 2019, the Authority
may recover the outstanding amount as a debt owed by Mr Ford and due to the
Authority.

Sections 391(4), 391(6) and 391(7) of the Act apply to the publication of
information about the matter to which this Final Notice relates. Under those
provisions, the Authority must publish such information about the matter to which
the notice relates as the Authority considers appropriate. The information may be
published in such manner as the Authority considers appropriate. However, the
Authority may not publish information if such publication would, in the opinion of
the Authority, be unfair to the person with respect to whom the action is taken or
prejudicial to the interests of consumers or detrimental to the stability of the UK
financial system.

The Authority intends to publish such information about the matter to which this
Final Notice relates as it considers appropriate.

Authority contacts

For more information concerning this matter generally, contact Kevin Thorpe (direct
line: 020 7066 4450, email: kevin.thorpe@fca.org.uk) or William Walsh (direct line:
020 7066 5518, email: william.walsh@fca.org.uk) of the Authority.

Enforcement and Market Oversight Division