20 months for Macquarie Equities adviser

A former Macquarie Equities client adviser has been jailed on market manipulation charges.

Newton Chan was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria to a term of 20 months imprisonment following an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) investigation into the manipulation of the share price of Bill Express Limited (BXP).

The sentence follows Chan's guilty plea to eight counts of market manipulation and one count of providing false or misleading information to ASIC.

The investigation revealed that between May 2006 and March 2008 Chan used a number of trading accounts to purchase more than 34 million BXP shares, worth over $6.1 million, via 904 separate transactions.

It was accepted that the transactions created or were likely to create an artificial price for BXP.

He was ordered to serve four months immediately, before being released on a recognisance release order.

On the charge of providing false or misleading information to ASIC, Chan was sentenced to five years imprisonment - but the term was incorporated in the total sentence of 20 months due to the defendant's early guilty plea.

In sentencing Chan, Justice T Forrest made a specific reference to the importance of maintaining fair and transparent markets.

"I consider that it is only by the imposition of such a sentence that others considering manipulating the market in some way will pause to think about the potential consequences of their actions," said Justice Forrest.

On 20 August, Chan was banned by ASIC from providing financial services for a period of five years. BXP is now in liquidation.