The two girlfriends didn't know about each other's existence

Oct 17, 2012 18:41 GMT  ·  By

39-year-old Thomas Ammann, a banker at the Japanese bank Mizuho, apparently leaked sensitive information during bedroom conversations, making his two lovers a combined profit of $3.2 million.

The German man was an employee at the London offices at the Mizuho bank, and is currently on trial for insider trading. He was one of only eight at the bank who knew that Canon was planning a takeover of Netherlands-based printing firm Oce in 2009.

Soon after he found out about the opportunity, girlfriends Christina Weckwerth (44) and Jessica Mang (29) started buying Canon shares, eventually doubling their investment.

According to the Telegraph, prosecutors accuse Ammann of using the women as middlemen. To maintain this as confidential as he possibly could, Ammann kept the women a secret from one another.

“These two women managed to almost double their money by trading in one stock. Each of these women considered that Ammann was their boyfriend. They had no idea of the existence of the other,” Amanda Pinto, of the Financial Services Authority, stated.

Some suspected the women were working alone, and had obtained information about the takeover by sweet-talking it out of Ammann.

Weckwerth was a wealthy divorcee from Taunus, Germany, who had met the man through a dating site. She invested more than half of her divorce settlement in the deal, and made $1.6 million from the transaction.

Mang met the banker at a night club, and lived on a small health worker's salary, and only made $48,000 after borrowing from her family as much as she possibly could.

When Mang's diary was introduced as evidence, one entry showed that the banker charged a 50% commission on all earnings from selling the stock.

“Transaction feels a little demeaning. [...] I’d feel a little like I pay him for his companionship. I do worry he doesn’t trust me,” the 29-year-old had written.