An Australian Bureau of Statistics employee is alleged to have given market-sensitive information to a bank employee

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

A public servant from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and a National Australia Bank (NAB) employee have been arrested for insider trading and abuse of public office, with police alleging the pair used sensitive information to gain about $7m in profits.



The two men had known one another since university, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said at a press conference in Canberra on Friday.

Police allege the 26-year-old Melbourne man employed by NAB had obtained market-sensitive information from the 24-year-old Canberra-based ABS employee in order to trade foreign exchange derivatives.

The AFP acting assistant commissioner, Ian McCartney, said the yet-to-be-released data included labour force, retail and trade figures.

“In effect [the NAB employee] utilised sensitive ABS information to predict fluctuations in the Australian dollar. We will allege during the course of this investigation that a profit of approximately $7m was made,” he said.

On Friday the AFP and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) conducted eight searches in Melbourne and Canberra, including the ABS and NAB offices.

The trading activity is said to have occurred between August last year and this month.

The ABS employee faces charges of insider trading, receiving a bribe, abuse of public office and money laundering and is expected to appear in court in Canberra on Saturday.

The ABS said the employee, who has been suspended, was "a relatively junior officer with trusted access to a number of economic collections both pre- and post-publication".

It has launched a review to look at whether processes could be improved.

"The ABS unequivocally regards unauthorised disclosure of embargoed statistics as a criminal act and an appalling breach of trust," the agency said in a statement.

"ABS staff are highly aware of embargo, privacy and confidentiality policies and their obligations relating to the collection, production and dissemination of statistics. The arrest of an ABS staff member for unauthorised disclosure of statistics is unprecedented in ABS history spanning more than 100 years."

The NAB employee faces charges of insider trading, giving a bribe to a public official, dealing in identification information and money laundering.

He appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday and was granted bail with conditions including the surrender of his passport.

Police allege the funds were for personal gain, and say the NAB had no involvement in the conduct, or knowledge of the activity.

The bank issued a statement saying it had sacked the employee.

It said the charges did not relate to the man's work at NAB, no NAB money or customer money was involved, and no NAB systems were used.

The bank's chief executive, Cameron Clyne, said the alleged activity was "completely unacceptable to NAB and our core values of doing the right thing by our customers, our shareholders and our staff".

Police allege the bank employee obtained the lion’s share of the benefit of the alleged scheme, and proceeds were tied up in half a million dollars in property and about $6.5m in investment accounts. There was also a motor vehicle valued at $15,000.

Officers seized $9,000 in cash during the search.

“I want to send a clear message to people watching ... if you’re thinking of engaging in this sort of activity, think again,” McCartney said. “We can and we have monitored this sort of activity and we will take strong law enforcement action.”

The head of markets enforcement at Asic, Chris Savundra, said he was not prepared to comment on how the agency became aware of the case. Asic referred details to the AFP and they worked together on the investigation.

