Calvin Zhu was a migrant success story - arriving in Australia with his family as a 10-year-old - a university education in finance, and then by the age of 30 holding the lofty title of executive vice-president with Hanlong Mining.

But once the Australian Securities and Investments Commission surveillance team detected suspect trading in Bannerman Resources and Sundance Resources, both takeover targets of Hanlong, Zhu lost his job, was unemployed and, in his own words, suffered "irreparable damage" to his professional reputation.

Zhu, who pleaded guilty this morning in the Downing Centre Local Court to serial inside trading since 2006, had outlined his personal situation to another judge in December, when he asked for permission to leave the country.

Advertisement

Zhu had wanted to travel to China to speak to his father-in-law, a man to whom he owed not only $1 million but a cultural obligation to give an account of his predicament in person. The New South Wales Supreme Court was told that his wife would surrender her passport and remain in Australia with their child while he travelled, and that Mr Zhu was an Australian citizen who did not hold a People's Republic of China passport.

But as Justice Michael Slattery determined, the failure of Mr Zhu's friend and colleague, Steven Xiao, Hanlong's former managing director, to return to Australia under the court's previous restricted travel regime was a material change in circumstance. He banned Mr Zhu from leaving the country.

The judge also said that Mr Zhu had transferred $2.2 million from the Australian account of a company he controlled, Wingatta, to a Hong Kong account, and the whereabouts after that of the money was unknown. ASIC has alleged that $1 million of those funds were from Hanlong Metals, and were used to fund trades in Sundance contracts for difference (CFDs), which reaped a $1.2 million profit. ASIC says only $76,000 was returned to the company.

Zhu pleaded guilty to insider trading conduct while working as an executive at Caliburn, later as an associate at Credit Suisse, and as vice president, investments at Hanlong Mining.

The charges involved procuring others, including friends and his mother-in-law, and the company Wingatta, to acquire contracts for difference and securities ahead of public knowledge of a takeover bid.

See the original post:
Unhappy end to a migrant success story