Insider Trading

A former executive to Chinese owned resource investor, Hanlong Mining Investment Pty Ltd has pleaded guilty to insider trading (for three charges of prohibited conduct while in possession of inside information) at the Downing Centre Local Court. Calvin Zhu will face the NSW Supreme Court on September 7 for sentencing after admitting to providing inside information used by others to profit. The trades reportedly profited $371,000 out of $1.3 million in profits gained from sharing his insider information.

Former Macquarie Equities senior client adviser and securities trader Newton Chan, of Balwyn, once earned more than $500,000 a year in his senior role but now will spend the next four months in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of market manipulation of the share price of collapsed electronic payments company Bill Express. Bill Express ran a network of kiosks used to collect bill payments and collapsed in 2008 owing $250 million. Chan will serve four months jail before being eligible for release. He has also been disqualified from managing corporations.

The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) will strengthen its surveillance of insider trading and simplify its operating rules following a wide-ranging review into its role as market supervisor.

In changes expected to cost about $10.4 million over the next three years, the listed exchange will also set up a separate subsidiary company to conduct its supervisory functions.

The ASX said on Thursday it would bump up annual listing fees from July 1 next year to cover the cost of some of the changes.