Enforcement: ASIC takes action against former Citigroup brokers
Mark Richard McKenzie from Melbourne and Colin Hebbard from Perth, both formerly employed by Citigroup, have been banned from providing financial services for three and five years respectively.
ASIC'c case against McKenzie found that, while employed as a broker with Citigroup Wealth Advisers Pty Ltd., McKenzie possessed inside information regarding a possible takeover of Vision Systems Limited (VSL), a publicly listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), and purchased VSL shares on his own account and advised four of his clients to purchase VSL shares. The actions were between 26 July 2006 and 8 August 2006. McKenzie appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which upheld the ban.
In a related investigation, Mr Colin Hebbard, a former broker employed in Citigroup’s Citi Smith Barney Pty Ltd Perth office, was also found to have communicated inside information on VSL shares to Mr McKenzie and three of his clients, and then advised them to purchase the stock.
In February 2009, ASIC banned Mr Hebbard from providing financial services for five years
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