Justice Hollingworth had warned Kamay at a hearing in December that his public apology was not a "dazzling display", after he blamed a Wolf of Wall Street culture for contributing to his actions.

"Although the corporate culture that existed in NAB's foreign currency division when you, Mr Kamay, were working there may have been unduly focused on making as much money as possible, that does not justify your behaviour. For both of you, your motivation for committing these offences was personal greed, pure and simple," Justice Hollingworth said.

'Carefully premeditated'

Justice Hollingworth found that while Kamay "first floated the idea" at a mutual friend's birthday party at the bayside suburb of Rye in May 2013, Hill "embraced it willingly".

Justice Hollingworth said Kamay's behaviour was "carefully planned and premeditated" and the information provided was of a "very high quality and value". She said Kamay's psychologists identified "symptoms of inflated self-esteem or narcissistic personality traits" and but for his guilty plea would have sentenced him to more than 10 years jail.

<p> FIONA BUFFINI

The 26-year-old Kamay, who will now celebrate his 30th birthday behind bars, began making sizeable bets on the Australian dollar, minutes and sometimes seconds before the announcement of unreleased ABS data, including labour force and retail sales figures, in September 2013.

Unbeknown to Hill, Kamay opened up a second trading account with foreign exchange broker Pepperstone Financial and two accounts with an alternative broker, Axicorp. Kamay's biggest single one-day profit came on March 13 last year, when he made more than $2.5 million after the release of surprisingly positive jobs data.


Kamay, who netted more than $7 million in profits through 45 trades over eight months, pleaded guilty to six charges including four for insider trading, one for identity theft and one for money laundering related to his $2.3 million purchase of an apartment bought from the reality television show The Block.

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

Record penalty

Justice Hollingworth said that while Kamay "best appreciated" the value of the confidential information, Hill's "betrayal of trust" had "caused the ABS to spend considerable time and money reviewing the integrity of its computer systems, and undertaking further staff training".

Kamay's sentence is believed to be Australia's longest for insider trading, after the maximum jail term was doubled in 2010 to 10 years. Sydney stockbroker and convicted insider trader John Hartman's 4½ year sentence was halved on appeal and he was released after 15 months in Silverwater jail in western Sydney in 2012. His alleged conspirator, investment banker Oliver Curtis, is currently awaiting trial on insider trading charges.

Professor Ian Ramsay, a law professor at the University of Melbourne, said the record penalties reflected a tougher line from the corporate regulator and the stronger penalty regime. "These were the highest penalties ever for insider trading by a significant margin," he said.

But they also highlighted the need for tougher sanctions on other white-collar crimes, he warned, given misconduct by financial planners and fraudulent directors could result in people losing their life savings.

"There is an argument that we are maybe seeing insufficient penalties being imposed in terms of providing strong deterrent signals into the marketplace," he said.

Also on Tuesday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced that Gold Coast financial planner Ian John Weaver, 70, would avoid jail and receive a two-year good behaviour bond after being found guilty of tipping his clients into risky double-geared investments.