Steven Noske jailed for 18 months for insider trading Neale...

Steven Noske jailed for 18 months for insider trading

Neale Prior
Friday, 28 April 2017 3:07PM

Businessman Steve Noske leaves the WA Supreme Court at a lunchbreak during his insider trading trial. Picture: Megan Powell/The West Australian.
A former Mitsui gas asset manager turned insider trader will spend up to 18 months in jail for buying shares in a coal seam gas player while advising a potential bidder.
Justice Stephen Hall this afternoon sentenced Steven Noske to 18 months jail, with a nine-month minimum, for buying Mitsui’s Queensland partner WestSide Corporation while helping Maurice Brand’s processor Liquefied Natural Gas Limited.
A Supreme Court jury convicted Noske on insider trading three weeks ago after hearing evidence of his WestSide-related activities in February, 2012.
He had left Mitsui in mid-2011 to work with two other companies not involved in the trial, but he also did some consulting for LNGL as it sought gas supplies in Queensland from firms partnering with Mitsui.
Mr Brand had testified that he told Noske that LNGL lodged a takeover proposal with WestSide and he wanted the former Mitsui worker to find out his old firm’s likely reaction.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which began investigating Noske’s trading in 2013, welcomed Justice Hall’s decision.
ASIC commissioner John Price said Noske’s imprisonment confirmed the seriousness with which insider trading was viewed by the courts.
Mr Price said the jail was term was a reminder of the significant obligations on those with access to market-sensitive information in the course of their work.
“ASIC's surveillance of the market, aided by sophisticated analysis and improved technology, means that anyone who attempts to profit from insider information runs a very real risk of being convicted and jailed,” the commissioner said.
Justice Hall also fined Noske $20,000.