Wolf of Wall Street: Personal Greed, Pure and Simple

Lukas Kamay, a former National Australia Bank foreign exchange trader, has been sentenced to seven years and three months jail, the longest term for insider trading, after pleading guilty to masterminding a lucrative $7 million trading scam.

Kamay, 26, and his co-accused Christopher Hill, 25, were both sentenced to record jail sentences for insider trading after they pleaded guilty.

Kamay received the longest ever sentence in Australia for insider trading after the maximum criminal penalties were doubled in 2010 and will serve a non-parole period of four years and six months.

Hill received three years and three months jail with a non-parole period of two years, after receiving $20,000.00 from his former Monash University mate for passing on undisclosed ABS economic data to make trades.

Since August 2013, Kamay would use confidential information supplied by Hill, including confidential data on jobs, retail sales, building approvals, capital expenditure and housing and finance, to buy foreign exchange derivative contracts before the release of the ABS data and would sell the contracts shortly after.

The two men were caught following a four month federal police sting, code named Operation Leith, which was triggered after their stockbroker discovered the pair were friends on LinkedIn.

Kamay pleaded guilty to seven charges including insider trading, identity theft and money laundering charges, despite a public apology where he blamed a Wolf of Wall Street culture for contributing to his actions.

Hill pleaded guilty to six offences including insider trading, identity theft and breach of public office.

Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said that Kamay’s behaviour was carefully planned and premeditated and remarked that for both men, the motivation for committing the offences was personal greed, pure and simple.

Her Honour hoped the jail sentences would serve as a deterrent to other young people from committing corporate crime.

For advice on corporate or company matters, we encourage you to contact our corporate and commercial lawyers at  your Gold Coast Lawyers, McLaughlins Lawyers.