About half of the $3 million was funneled back to Annabel McClellan. The schemes also netted another $20 million for Sanders and his firm's clients. Published reports said Annabel McClellan was arrested Tuesday on a charge of obstructing justice. The couple's attorneys were quoted as denying the charges and stating they would contest them vigorously and that McClellan did not trade based on insider information nor did he improperly leak information about trades.

British authorities charged Sanders, co-owner of Blue Index, and Miranda Sanders, with seven counts of insider trading. Jame Sanders also faces three counts of illegally disclosing inside information. James Swallow a co-owner and director of Blue Index; Christopher Hossain, a senior trader at the firm; and Adam Buck a former Blue Index employee, also face insider trading charges.

The trades are alleged to have taken place between October 2006 and February 2008. The SEC said Arnold McClelland, then head of one of Deloitte's regional mergers and acquisition teams, had access to highly confidential information and provided tax and other advice to clients that were considering purchasing other companies.

The SEC said that based on information provided by the McClellans, James Sanders purchased derivative financial instruments that are pegged to the price of the underlying U.S. stock. The transactions in which McClellan allegedly leaked information included the 2007 acquisition of Kronos by a private equity firm and Microsoft's purchase of aQuantive that same year. Also involved was the 2008 acquisition of Getty Images by a private equity firm.