A Melbourne share trader has been convicted on charges related to short selling brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Giovanni Spagnolo, of Northcote, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court and was sentenced without conviction to pay $10,000 into the Victorian Magistrates’ Court Fund as a condition of entering into a $2,000 recognisance order to be of good behaviour for three years.
ASIC alleged between May 28 and October 24, last year, Spagnolo sold shares and options he did not own contrary to Section 1020B(2) of the Corporations Act.
The regulator alleged that in each case, Spagnolo applied for shares and options in capital raisings by the companies and before they were issued he agreed to sell them on the Australian Securities Exchange.
It was alleged in each instance there was no certainty those shares would be issued by the date the relevant share sales were due to settle.
