But Hartman and Curtis share an unhappy bond that casts a shadow over Curtis's domestic goings on. The same bond raises fundamental questions about the effectiveness of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Hartman was, after he gave up his $350,000-a-year salary, Las Vegas gambling trips and high-end cars, the model criminal, giving ASIC every assistance. He even told it about insider-trading related ''tipping'' offences the corporate regulator never would have known about. Hartman, who made $1.9 million in illicit profits, paid a high price for his belated honesty. He was sentenced to an extra 18 months in jail for the tipping, on top of the three years in jail from the standard insider trading charges.

(Hartman, whose non-parole period is three years, is appealing against the severity of his sentence.) Here is the problem for ASIC and Curtis: As made clear in Justice Peter McClellan's sentencing, Hartman was the insider trading ''tipper''; Curtis was the insider trading ''tippee''. To elaborate, Hartman as tipper is in jail for an extra 18 months for offences he first appeared in court about in April last year. Hartman is in jail for up to 18 months extra for confessing his crime. Curtis is in the social pages But Curtis as tippee - the recipient of the tips that Hartman made - has not faced any ASIC court action more than a year after Hartman was charged.

The judgment by Justice McClellan is eloquent about the involvement of Curtis. It reads (with ''Mr Hartman'' used to replace ''the offender''): ''During the interview Mr Hartman made admissions to passing inside information obtained during the course of his employment at Orion [Asset Management] to Mr Curtis. ''Mr Hartman communicated this inside information for the purpose of Mr Curtis using the information to acquire and there after dispose of … CFDs [contracts for difference]. ''Mr Curtis is a childhood friend of Mr Hartman, Mr Hartman and Mr Curtis have known each other since about 1998. ''Mr Hartman communicated the inside information to Mr Curtis during the period 23 May 2007 and June 2008.

''During this time Mr Hartman considered that he and Mr Curtis were best friends and were also working in the same industry … ''Over time, Mr Hartman and Mr Curtis discussed the idea of Mr Curtis trading in CFDs using inside information possessed by Mr Hartman about Orion's intended trading in the shares of entities listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. ''In his role as a securities dealer for Orion Mr Hartman would receive instructions to trade in certain equities … ''Once in possession of this inside information Mr Hartman would send a message via the mobile phone to Mr Curtis about what security to take out a CFD position in, whether to go long or short and how many CFDs to acquire. ''During the interview, Mr Hartman disclosed that he and Mr Curtis communicated with each other about Mr Curtis's trading in CFDs by using BlackBerry mobile phones, both of which had been purchased by Mr Curtis.

''Mr Hartman later provided his BlackBerry to ASIC. The purpose of communicating using the BlackBerry was so Mr Hartman and Mr Curtis could use a method of transmitting messages that did not leave data on telecommunication services … ''After the first text message from Mr Hartman, Mr Curtis would normally respond with a message to the effect that he had traded in CFDs, had partially traded in CFDs or was unable to trade. ''In this regard Mr Curtis would send messages like 'can't do it', 'done' or 'unfinished' … ''During the period in which Mr Hartman was conducting the share trading on behalf of Orion, Mr Hartman and Mr Curtis would sometimes send messages to each other like, 'wow the price is going up'. ''Once Mr Hartman was sure that his trading on behalf of Orion was nearing completion he would send Mr Curtis another message in words to the effect of 'sell x', 'get out of x', x being the entity in which Mr Curtis was presently holding CFDs …

''Mr Hartman was asked during the interview if Mr Curtis knew the information was from Orion and Mr Hartman said 'yes'. ''Mr Hartman was asked if Mr Curtis knew the information was confidential and again Mr Hartman said 'yes'.'' The long period since Hartman's charges arose can be taken as raising questions about the competence of the corporate regulator. On a different reading, the tie between the two men may demonstrate how hard it is for ASIC to prosecute complex cases related to insider trading. In any event, the current situation is untenable. It allows the perception of one rule for Hartman and another rule for Curtis.

Hartman is in jail for up to 18 months extra for confessing his crime. Curtis is in the social pages.