ASIC charges IT consultant with insider trading
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has charged Sydney-based IT consultant Steven Oakes with 115 offences.
The charges included 43 “serious computer offences” relating to unauthorised access to data held in a computer with the intention to commit a serious offence, namely insider trading, the regulator said.
They also comprised 70 insider trading offences under the Corporations Act 2001 and two offences for conduct that resulted in the concealment, destruction, mutilation or alteration of books required by ASIC.
ASIC alleged that between January 2012 and February 2016, Oakes gained unauthorised access to inside information from the private computer network of a Melbourne-based financial publisher, with the intention of using this information to engage in insider trading.
The inside information was recommendations to buy shares that were about to be published in stock recommendation reports.
ASIC alleged that Oakes then used this information on 70 occasions to buy shares in 52 different ASX-listed companies before the ‘Buy’ recommendations for the shares in those companies were published.
He made profits from selling the shares a short time later, following the reports’ publication, ASIC said.
At the filing hearing for Oakes’ charges, listed at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 14 May 2018, he was not required to enter a plea and the matter was adjourned to 25 June 2018 for committal mention, ASIC said.
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