On Page 8 of yesterday's announcement; Verification of Sampling and Assaying, you will see in the Commentary notes 3rd and 4th down, reference to the Fortescue acQuire Database | Analytical results reported by Bureau Veritas are loaded into the Fortescue acQuire database, validated and shared electronically. Verification of data is managed and created by company personnel.
ASIC need only to find who at Fortescue logged in and accessed the TAS results on the database prior to the pre- announcement sell-off period to track who it could have been that obtained a financial advantage by deception (as defined by the Crimes Act) by selling down their TAS holdings prior to the announcement.
TAS share price had been hovering around 6.5 cents for some time. Let's assume that if not for the pre-announcement sell-off, the SP would have stayed the same at 6.5 cents up until yesterday's announcement. Yesterday, the SP dropped 12.5% on announcement to settle at 4.2 cents . If not for the prior sell-off, the SP still could have lost 12.5% yesterday, but instead it would have settled at 5.6 cents, instead of trading down to as low as 3.8 cents and eventually closing at 4.2 cents, a 30% difference on the 5.6 cents, if not for the pre-announcement sell-off.
There's nothing new with this type of activity. Unfairly, some people will benefit, while others will be disadvantaged.
TAS Price at posting:
4.2¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
