The Financial Services Authority (FSA) had charged Andrew King, a finance director, and lawyers Michael McFall and Andrew Rimmington with eight counts of insider dealing during the 305 million pound ($450 million) takeover of biotech firm NeuTec Pharma by Swiss drugmaker Novartis.But in a blow to the regulator, the jury dismissed the charges against McFall — a former partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery — and King, the former finance chief at NeuTec.Rimmington, a former partner at law firm Dorsey & Whitney, was discharged by the judge half-way through the trial for personal reasons. His brother had been assaulted and killed and the FSA said it was not pursuing him separately."Insider dealing cases are challenging to prove, but these were serious charges and we considered that the evidence provided a proper basis to put the case before a jury for them to decide," said Margaret Cole, the head of the FSA's enforcement division."Criminal prosecutions are integral to the FSA's long term strategy of delivering credible deterrence and combating insider dealing."The FSA has brought three successful criminal cases to date, including a case against Malcolm "Streaky" Calvert, a former partner at UK brokerage Cazenove, who was jailed for 21 months in March in its most high-profile victory to date.That conviction was closely followed by the arrests of seven insider dealing suspects, including a managing director at Deutsche Bank and the head of sales trading at Exane, part-owned by France's BNP Paribas.The FSA, which is keen to silence critics who have accused it of allowing reckless behavior in London in the run-up to the credit crisis, earlier on Thursday fined US investment bank JPMorgan a record 33.32 million pounds for failing to protect billions of dollars of client money.