UPDATE 2-Perella Weinberg puts employee in insider trading probe on leave -sources
(Adds Metropolitan Police comment)
FRANKFURT, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The advisory firm Perella Weinberg Partners has placed a London-based employee who is under investigation as part of an insider trading probe in Germany on leave, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.
German authorities on Thursday said they were investigating five suspects, including one who was in custody, for allegedly profiting to the tune of millions of euros on upcoming M&A transactions between 2017 and 2021.
Perella said in a statement: "The firm is assisting in an investigation by German law enforcement authorities. The firm is not the subject of the investigation, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of the firm."
The two people spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
One of them said that British police had searched Perella's London office this week.
A spokesperson for London's Metropolitan Police said, without giving further details, that officers from the Met's International Assistance Unit executed warrants on behalf of German authorities at a premises in Westminster on Wednesday.
A further warrant was executed at a residential address in west London on the same day, they said, adding that no arrests had been made.
A spokesperson for Frankfurt's prosecutors declined to comment.
The prosecutors and Germany's financial regulator BaFin on Thursday said they had been conducting their investigation since November 2021 before carrying out multiple searches this week and last in Germany, Britain and Austria. They are now evaluating evidence that was seized.
Authorities described profits from the alleged trades as a two-digit million euro figure. The transactions involved German companies and all of the suspects are German nationals.
Manager Magazin first reported news on the Perella employee, while Bloomberg first reported the search in London. (Reporting by Tom Sims, Marta Orosz and Emma-Victoria Farr, and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro Editing by Miranda Murray, Kirsten Donovan, and Hans Seidenstuecker)
