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LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - A former trader at U.S. hedgefund Moore Capital was sentenced to 19 months in jail by aLondon court and fined 100,000 pounds ($147,370) on Thursdayafter becoming the third man to plead guilty in Britain'slargest insider dealing investigation.
Julian Rifat, dubbed "the face of Moore Capital" byinvestigators, is one of the most high-profile professionalscharged in connection with an eight-year inquiry codenamedOperation Tabernula, which hit the headlines in 2010 afterpolice launched the first of 10 arrests across southern England.
The investigation, named after London bars such as The Rackand Tenter, The Crispin and The Gable in which the spoils ofillegal trading were divided, is part of a crackdown on a crimethat UK regulators only began prosecuting in 2009.
Rifat, who was arrested on his 41st birthday five years agoand pleaded guilty last November, passed on confidential, marketmoving tips gathered from the London offices of New York-basedMoore Capital to former broker Graham Shelley via text messageson unregistered pay-as-you-go mobile phones.
Shelley, who once worked for Novum Securities, organised thetrading in a scam that generated more than 250,000 pounds,bought Rifat a 15,000 pound luxury family holiday to Oman andorganised a 48,500 pound payment for a Range Rover.
($1 = 0.6786 pounds) (Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Sinead Cruise)
