LawFuel.com – Two former client advisers were today handed custodial sentences, fully suspended in the Melbourne County Court after being found guilty of market manipulation following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) into the trading of Genetic Technology Ltd (GTG) shares.
Mr Rocco Musumeci, 28, of Rockdale, New South Wales, was sentenced to seven months imprisonment, fully suspended.
On 18 December 2008, Mr Musumeci a former client advisor with Bell Potter in Wollongong New South Wales, pleaded guilty to three counts of market manipulation after participating in the trading of GTG shares through a share trading account held in the name of XY Inc, an overseas company formerly associated with substantial GTG shareholder and former director, Dr Mervyn Jacobson.
Mr Richard John Wade, 43, of East Melbourne, Victoria was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, fully suspended.
On 10 November 2008, Mr Wade a former client advisor with ABN Amro in Melbourne pleaded guilty to seven counts of market manipulation after participating in the trading of GTG shares through share trading accounts held in the names of Tamara Milstein and Palamine Pty Ltd, a company associated with former GTG Chief Operating Officer,
Mr Geoffrey Newing.
By promising future co-operation with ASIC in accordance with section 21E(1) of the Crimes Act 1914, both Mr Musumeci and Mr Wade received a reduction to their sentences.
The Court heard that if Mr Musumeci and Mr Wade had not cooperated with investigators they would have been sentenced to 12 and 20 months imprisonment respectively.
ASIC alleged that Messrs Musumeci and Wade received and acted on instructions from
Dr Jacobson, his daughter Tamara Newing and her husband Geoffrey Newing, to place orders on the Australian Securities Exchange for the purchase of GTG shares between May and November 2006. ASIC alleged that these orders were likely to create or maintain an artificial price for trading in the company’s shares.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions prosecuted the matter.
Background
In 2008, ASIC banned Messrs Musemeci (a former authorised representative of Bell Potter Securities) and Wade (a former authorised representative of ABN AMRO Morgans) from providing financial services for four and five years respectively.
On 15 and 16 December 2008, Dr Jacobson, Mrs Tamara Newing and Mr Geoffrey Newing appeared and entered into separate bail arrangements in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on charges of market manipulation following their involvement in the trading of GTG shares (refer ASIC media release AD08-84 and AD08-86).
Dr Jacobson and Mr and Mrs Newing are all scheduled to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 23 April 2009 for their respective committal mentions.
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