Former Lonsec MD pleads guilty to insider trading
Former Lonsec managing director Norman John Graham has pleaded guilty to two charges of insider trading.
Graham's guilty plea has been reported by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), who said he had entered the plea in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.
The regulator said the charges related to an order Graham placed on 26 February, 2010, to sell a total of 200,000 shares of Clean Seas Tuna Ltd across two client accounts of the stockbroking arm of Lonsec.
It said that at the time of the alleged transaction Graham was managing director of the firm.
ASIC said it was being alleged that at the time Graham sold the shares on the two client accounts he knew that Clean Seas Tuna had suffered a financial loss in the December 2009 half-year period of more than $10 million, with the loss to be announced to the market on 26 February, 2010, and knew that Southern Bluefin Tuna fingerlings had died.
ASIC said it would be alleged Graham's trading was prior to the release of Clean Seas Tuna's half-year results on 26 February, 2010, after which time Clean Seas Tuna's share price fell substantially.
Graham has been bailed to appear for a plea hearing in the County Court of Victoria on 16 May.
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