Overview
- The Financial Conduct Authority has charged 38-year-old solicitor Richard Bloomfield with five counts alleging he traded Seraphine Group shares using confidential information tied to work on the company’s acquisition.
- The alleged dealing took place on five occasions between 28 March 2022 and 10 January 2023, a period when the takeover was being worked on behind closed doors.
- Bloomfield appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, gave no indication of plea, was released on unconditional bail, and faces a next hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 5 August.
- Goodwin Procter is reported to have advised the private equity bidder Mayfair on the take-private; the FCA says the firm and Seraphine are not under investigation and Goodwin says it has cooperated, while Bloomfield has since moved to lawtech firm SuLe.
- The charges come against a backdrop of Seraphine’s collapse from a roughly £150m IPO in 2021 to administration in 2025 and a late‑2025 sale of its brand and IP to Next for about £500,000–£600,000, a decline that regulators say highlights potential investor harm from pre-deal trading and that legal proof will hinge on showing use of materially price-sensitive, non-public information.