Business Diary: The incompetent insider dealers

To succeed at insider dealing – not that we condone it, mind – you need someone to whom you have no obvious link to trade on the secret information you're supplying. This seemed to slip the mind of Jeremy Burley, the managing director of BMS Minerals, a Ugandan company that supplied equipment to the UK's Tower Resources. When he discovered Tower was about to announce a setback on one of its oil fields, Mr Burley told his contact back home to sell his considerable shareholding in the company. They were caught – and fined yesterday by the Financial Services Authority – possibly because the pair were just a little bit linked: Mr Burley's UK share trader was one Jeffery Burley, his dear old dad.

Proof there's life after Goldman

Farewell then to Paul Kafka, Goldman Sachs' head of European communications, who is off to ply his trade in a similar role at UBS. The Swiss bank has had its fair share of troubles – not least an embarrassing run-in with the US authorities over the taxes paid (or not) by some of its account holders – but one imagines Kafka is expecting a slightly easier time of things compared with life at the giant vampire squid.

Cashing in on a big idea

We're not sure whether to laugh or cry, but there's no denying Lagan Technologies, a Belfast-based IT consultancy, is quick to spot an opportunity. While David Cameron was still touring the television studio yesterday, Lagan was unveiling its "Big Society toolkit", which apparently features "tools that reduce bureaucracy, improve compliance and provide the public with better access to services via mobile applications, social networks and other web interfaces". Arggh.

Bonfire of the acronyms

Seventeen. That's how many quangos Vince Cable has now abolished since taking office. Yesterday's victims included the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy (SABIP), but will anyone notice its disappearance? Postings on the online forums at SABIP this year number a magnificent 10.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk