Sonray director behind bars
Former sole director of collapsed specialist contracts for difference (CFD) broker Sonray Capital Markets, Russell Andrew Johnson, has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail.
The Victorian Supreme Court sentence comes after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's (ASIC's) investigation into the company, which collapsed in 2010 owing more than $46 million.
Johnson pled guilty to seven charges last year including three charges of false accounting, one charge of submitting a false document to ASIC, two charges of theft to the value of $742,641 and one charge of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
The charges related to the use of a range of Sonray clients' trading accounts to create unfunded deposits, and there was no ‘physical' cash involved.
While sentencing Johnson, Justice Macaulay said the crimes were committed with "a sophisticated degree of orchestration and planning".
ASIC Chairman Greg Medcraft said: "The collapse of Sonray, which held millions of dollars in funds for several thousand clients, was in part due to the complete disregard of the law by senior members of the company."
Johnson is facing a minimum of three-and-a-half years before he is up for parole.
Sonray went into liquidation in October 2010, with former chief executive Scott Murray sentenced to five years jail in October 2011.
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