Harrison - whose full name is Andrew Grant Harrison - was born in the UK to New Zealanders who themselves held British citizenship. But he spent a lot of time in New Zealand, where he qualified as a lawyer. According to information provided to the Electoral Commission, his residential address when in NZ was his parents' home in Remuera, visited this week by the Weekend Herald.
His mother declined to provide a contact for her son, who she said was overseas. She initially denied he faced insider-trading charges but then said she did not want to discuss the matter.
Insider trading is akin to match fixing - profiting via the illicit use of exclusive information.
The indictment alleges that Harrison, 46, and four others conspired between November 1, 2006, and March 23, 2010, "to deal in securities that were price affected in relation to inside information that a person had as an insider by reason of their employment ... in order to profit or avoid a loss thereby".
Harrison was a commercial lawyer with Bell Gully before moving into finance in England. "It was always clear the law was not for him," a former colleague from that time told the Weekend Herald.
After arriving in England about 2000, he worked as a corporate financier for Durlacher & Co, which was taken over by the Panmure Gordon stable of companies.
Harrison worked there until August 2008, followed by a three-year stint with Lloyds Banking Group.
When he was charged in March 2013, he was a managing director and the head of public company business development with Altium Capital. He appears not to have worked in the finance sector since.
Altium said in a statement at the time that the regulator had told it that "the allegations relate entirely to this individual's personal actions while with a previous employer".
The dates in the charging document correspond to when Harrison worked at Panmure Gordon and at Lloyds.
The case was to have started in September 2014 but was pushed back to January 2016 after government cuts left four defendants without trial lawyers for six months and delayed case preparation.
That will be almost six years since the British markets regulator led dawn raids in March 2010, arresting seven men including Martyn Dodgson, one of those Harrison is accused of conspiring with.
The group is alleged to have netted profits of £3 million.
Dodgson, 43, is the most high-profile name and probably the best-known London financial figure ever to be charged with insider dealing, the Independent reported.
As a high-flying managing director at Deutsche Bank, he was regarded as one of the top bankers in the City, with impeccable sources in both politics and finance. Before the scandal broke, he was advising the Treasury on its investment in the bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds. He had previously worked for other top banks, including Cazenove and Lehman Brothers.
The Independent said the case is thought to involve share trading in scores of companies, including British household names such as Barclays and National Express.
