Guilty Pleas to Australia's Biggest Insider Trading Scam
Friday 19 September 2014 @ 9.39 a.m. | Corporate & Regulatory | Crime
Australia’s largest insider trading case has resulted in guilty pleas from both accused. Former National Australia Bank employee Lukas Kamsay and Australian Bureau of Statistics officer, Christopher Hill, have both pleaded guilty to conspiring in one of the biggest insider trading cases in Australian history; the total sum of their profit amounted to $7 million.
Background
According to evidence provided by the police, Kamay and Hill had begun by hatching a plan to make $200,000 from market sensitive information. However, the scheme quickly spiralled and led to Kamay concealing millions more in accounts unknown to Hill.
Kamay and Hill were university friends having both attended commerce school at Monash University. Documents revealed that the two friends had plotted the scheme at various gatherings in May of 2013. Under the arrangement, Hill would use his position as ABS officer to send Kamay employment, trade and retail figures moments before they were released to the market. Subsequently, Kamay would use the available data to make trades on the currency markets base on which direction the Australian dollar was likely to go.
Kamay paid Hill just thousands of dollars for the market sensitive information while he kept millions of dollars in profits. He lived the high life using the secret money to purchase a luxury apartment for the price of $2.5 million. The two continued to communicate through prepaid mobile phones in false names.
The pair was arrested in May of this year after a lengthy investigation by Australian Federal Police and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
Court Hearing
Hill and Kamay appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 16 September 2014 for preliminary hearings. Hill pleaded guilty to six criminal charges and Kamay entered similar pleas. However, Kamay pleaded not guilty to money laundering allegations and will now face trial before the Victorian Supreme Court next month.
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