Todays Business section of the Australian:
ASIC warns short sellers they could be jailed for spreading false rumours that hit stocks.
Australia's two share market regulators, the ASX and ASIC, have launched a campaign to crack down hard on malicious rumour-mongering as well as forcing greater disclosure of stock lending for short selling.
In a wide ranging joint release yesterday, ASIC noted it was "concerned that some individuals may be spreading false and mis-leading information about listed securities to artificially provoke sales of securities and reduce their market prices."
A subsequent statement by ASIC noted that spreading rumours to help force share prices down is a breach of the Corporations Act and is punishable by a five-year prison term and/or a fine of $220,000.It is clearly aimed at short sellers, who have been active in the recent volatile share market and in some cases appear to have known details of the margin loans taken out by some of the major shareholders in companies such as ALLCO and ABC learning.
ALLCO were they not the one and same mob behind the APA takeover of Qantas? I wonder if any of the rats reading this are becoming more nervous?
