Heres an article from another thread which relates to BNB. Its...

Heres an article from another thread which relates to BNB.

Its not new news, I'm interested in the response from the broking houses involved

Adele Ferguson | March 12, 2008
ASIC has fired off a please explain to at least 10 broking houses - understood to include UBS, Merrill Lynch and Austock - over rumours, short selling and possible insider trading in stocks at the centre of wild share market action.

The stocks include ABC Learning, City Pacific, Primary Healthcare, Allco Finance Group and Babcock & Brown.

UBS is believed to have been contacted by ASIC over an email one of its brokers, Clinton Wong, sent to some of his clients last week concerning Primary Health Care.

UBS has also been actively selling shares in Babcock & Brown and B&B-related entities.

The email is believed to have contained rumours that were not correct. UBS and Mr Wong declined to comment.

The Australian's business columnist Bryan Frith yesterday reported that Mr Wong's email referred to IAC, a consortium of private equity groups Ironbridge Capital and Archer capital and Primary Health's consumer and pharmacy (C&P) business.

Frith revealed that Mr Wong's email said, in part: "Yesterday arvo we got news that the IAC's funding had terminated for pot acq of Consumer" (potential acquisition of C&P).

Frith reported that the information was wrong, that Mr Wong nevertheless said Primary shares were still a buy, but that complaints had been made to ASIC about short-selling and rumour-mongering by the company.

Austock is believed to have been contacted over its close connection with ABC Learning and the heavy trading in ABC shares over the past few weeks. Austock chairman Bill Bessemer sits on the board of ABC and Austock has raised more than $130 million in capital raisings for Eddy Groves' ambitious childcare business outfit since 2001.

Austock was unavailable for comment.

Merrill Lynch is also believed to have been contacted by ASIC but declined to comment. It has been a big seller of ABC and Babcock & Brown, both of which have taken a battering in the past few weeks.

The move by ASIC follows last week's warning to the market that it would crack down on false, misleading and malicious rumours that caused a stock to fall in price. While brokers get such requests from the watchdog regularly, it is the first time ASIC has put out a press release saying it was on the case.

ASIC refused to specify how many market participants it had written to, the content of the letters or the time frame it has given for them to respond.

ASIC and the Australian Securities Exchange have sent out three releases in as many weeks. The first was on margin lending, the second on share lending, short selling and market manipulation, and now ASIC has said it has written to certain players to get more information.

The past fortnight has been nothing short of tumultuous: Allco Finance Group, ABC Learning, City Pacific and Hedley Group, have been massacred on talk of margin loans, short selling and big debts.

The market turmoil has provided short sellers with a chance to make huge profits.

ASIC said it had in recent weeks received a series of complaints from market participants over people spreading false or misleading information about listed securities. As part of the crackdown, the regulator is also contacting the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, the Financial Services Authority in Britain and the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong, seeking their assistance on any international aspects.

ASIC said: "ASIC's inquiries are related to conduct that could involve spreading of false or misleading rumours or predatory trading that could amount to market manipulation or insider trading.

"There are concerns that this is being done to artificially provoke sales of securities."

Under the Corporations Act, rumours can be a criminal offence if they deliberately mislead and are likely to induce people to buy or sell financial products, or if they are likely to have the effect of reducing the price of securities.

FROM: THE AUSTRALIAN TODAY

I take no responsibility for the accuracy and genuineness of this article/author