Posted Oct 3, 2022, 12:00 PM
How did a 26-year-old geek, who could be described as unstable, manage, from his computer installed in a small village in Loiret, to panic the leaders of Atos, as well as senior officials and executives of the Financial Markets Authority (AMF)? The story is implausible but true, and it ends badly. Explanations.
On May 14, 2021, Finsur Corp declared to the AMF that it had taken 5.08% of the group’s capital. The company says it is domiciled in Delaware and controlled by Dylan Dariah. Seven days later, this same company falls back below the 5% threshold. Finsur Corp is unknown in the Paris marketplace. It was registered in 2019 as a foreign company with a share capital of 20 million euros, then struck off with the registry of the Orleans commercial court on February 18, 2020. Its manager in France, Dylan Dariah, was born in 1995 in Fort of France, and is domiciled in the Loiret.
At Atos, we are worried. Buying 5% of the capital costs 300 million euros. We fear an attempt to take control or destabilize the title. Finsur could be a fake nose for an actor keen to buy the company out on the cheap. The group is fragile. Atos has just given up buying the American company DCX and its 2020 accounts have just been certified with reservations, due to doubts about American subsidiaries. Since the beginning of the year, the action has lost a quarter of its value. Within the public authorities, we are on the alert. The group develops sensitive software for the military and intelligence services.
Irrational intentions
But in the end, surprise: Finsur did not buy any shares. His threshold crossing declarations were false. What was Dylan Dariah looking to do? According to him, his intentions were neither rational nor evil. The young man, who spent the day in front of his computer, dreamed of working in finance.
He apologized to the regulator. He did not want to manipulate the Atos title. He had neither the financial capacity nor the experience to do so. He did not measure the impact of his actions. Above all, he did not think that his statement would be published on the AMF website. “If this case had been, according to the criteria, criminal, my client would undoubtedly have been declared irresponsible with regard to his psychological state”, comments his lawyer Frédéric Peltier, partner at Peltier Juvigny Marceau & Associés.
Even if his statements had no impact on the price, the stock market policeman decided to sanction him. Dylan Dariah was ordered to pay 800 euros. The weakness of the sanction is unprecedented. Such an offense can be punished up to 100 million euros. But it is significant for the young man who has very limited resources.
“These facts also raise questions about the responsibility of the stock market policeman”, indicates Frédéric Peltier. How did Finsur and Dylan Dariah manage to slip through the cracks in his net?
Data not verified by the AMF
The AMF has not verified the accuracy of the data provided. No rule obliges it to ask a shareholder to justify the acquisition of shares. On the other hand, he must verify the general consistency of the documents transmitted (that between the number of shares and voting rights and the percentages given, for example). On the Paris market, some are surprised at the lack of control because Finsur was totally unknown to the stock market policeman. Others, in his defense, point to the 1,500 threshold crossing declarations published in 2020. A very high number.
For Frédéric Peltier, “there are two weights two measures. The AMF penalized Bloomberg in the Vinci affair for not having verified the information published and it considers that it does not have to check the declarations of threshold crossing that it publishes and whose false nature was easily detectable. »
