Archer's son sacked after shares investigation

JAMES ARCHER, the son of the millionaire novelist Lord Archer, has been sacked from his top City job amid allegations of improper share dealing. Two managers of the flamboyant trading team nicknamed "the Flaming Ferraris" were also sacked by the City bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, yesterday.

Mr Archer's bosses, David Crisanti, 34 and Adrian Ezra, 31, were dismissed after an investigation by the bank into share dealing by 24-year-old Mr Archer. Mr Ezra and Mr Crisanti were not involved in the deals, which took place in December, but the bank was concerned about the way they had supervised Mr Archer. In a statement yesterday, CSFB, based in Canary Wharf, east London, said that the three men "have been dismissed for cause, following the completion of our internal investigation".

External investigations are also under way, and the Swedish stock exchange is expected to complete its inquiry next week.

Mr Archer will lose his share of pounds 5m in bonus payments.

At the centre of the investigations are claims that Mr Archer, in one day, aggressively sold pounds 600,000 shares in Stora, a wood pulp company and one of Sweden's biggest firms, in an attempt to drive down the value of the Stockholm market index.

It is claimed that Mr Archer intended then to make profits by trading in the futures market - really a form of gambling on the future value of shares, commodities and stock markets.