re: grant - comsuc down again?but what?
So, you sold out of the portfolio, actively, or blindly?
On-line, I could not sell my portfolio as a collective whole. I would need to enter each individual trade /stock being traded, and then individually execute that order.
$183,000 worth of shares would certainly gain the attention of the authorities. Not like, I saw an open drawer and mistook it for an open closet. Honest, really, the money was there on the floor. How was I to know that the drawer that was open was actually a shop register and that I was in a shop at the time!!! I thought that it was abandoned money, belonging to no-one!!!
If you have an on-line trading account and your trading history shows that you execute buy and sell orders, and receive email /paper confirmation slips (etc), then chances are, your past trading behaviour will be admitted into evidence. If this shows behaviour consistent with that associated with selling out of the ANZ shares (ie: I "blindly" sell my portfolio, etc), then a technical argument may be made out for the Defence. Otherwise, the mens rea would stick, and the conviction would be achieved.
More to the point, however, is whether the Police and DPP would be bothered with pursuing any form of financial crime (ie: where each individual transaction has to be separately entered into evidence, etc). If not, then they would plea bargain down to something else. Otherwise, they would prosecute and soon enough "*&*^ would be doin' time with Patsy Clyne!!!".
