Oliver Curtis arrives at court for insider trading sentence

DISGRACED banker Oliver Curtis should be jailed when he is sentenced next week for ­insider trading, prosecutors said yesterday.

Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis arrive at NSW Supreme Court for sentencing following his insider trading conviction. Picture: Craig Greenhill

DISGRACED banker Oliver Curtis should be jailed when he is sentenced next week for ­insider trading, prosecutors said yesterday.

Crown prosecutor David Staehli SC said Curtis should receive a custodial sentence for the $1.4 million conspiracy he committed with school friend John Hartman to fund a lavish lifestyle when they were in their early 20s.

Mr Staehli suggested the 24-month sentence Hartman received for tipping offences could be used by Justice Lucy McCallum as a “touchstone” when she sentenced Curtis.

Roxy Jacenko leaves her Bondi home this morning. Picture: John Grainger

Defence barrister Murugan Thangaraj SC said the 30-year-old should not be jailed, arguing Curtis and publicist wife Roxy Jacenko (pictured) had ­endured a six-year ASIC investigation, prosecution and ­resulting media attention.

“There isn’t a person in Sydney who would want to have lived through what Mr Curtis and his family have lived through since 2009,” he said.

Jacenko alluded to the stress the case had put on the family at a $200-a-head ­seminar for would-be publicists hours before her husband faced court.

She admitted to the crowd of 700 that “family circumstances” had prevented her from being as involved in ­organising the event as she would have liked.

She arrives at the Shangri-La Hotel, where she hosted a seminar for 700 PR hopefuls. Picture: Chris Pavlich.

Curtis was found guilty by a Supreme Court jury this month to one count of conspiring to commit insider trading with Hartman between May 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years’ jail and a $220,000 fine.

It is alleged Curtis bet on the sharemarket using insider information from Hartman, then an equities trader for ­investment management fund Orion Asset Management.

The pair used part of the $1.4 million profit to pay for a $3000-a-week Bondi Beach apartment for 12 months, vehicles and an overseas holiday.

Their conspiracy was exposed when Hartman was ­discovered insider trading in January 2009 and confessed his crime to ASIC.

He told ASIC investigators he had also traded illegally with Curtis, his best friend from elite Sydney school St Ignatius College, Riverwood, and ­received a reduced sentence in return for giving evidence against him in court.

The court heard that since being convicted Curtis had co-operated with the forfeiture of the $1.4 million the pair made trading illegally.

Oliver Curtis jumps out of the car after arriving at the Supreme Court. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

The forfeited money came from his share in the profits of the $8.15 million sale of his and Jacenko’s Woollahra home last year which had been frozen by order of the Federal Court.

Mr Staehli said the fact Curtis had been on bail since he was charged in 2013 should not be taken into account when sentencing because the conditions were so lenient he had travelled to China regularly on business and had gone on a holiday to Europe with his family.

Justice McCallum is scheduled to hand down her sentence next Friday at 9.30am.

After changing into a sombre suit, Roxy Jacenko supports husband Oliver at court. Picture: Craig Greenhill

At another point, when speaking about the need to check emails at all hours of the morning, she had admitted she had a little less sleep than usual overnight.

Only the heat of the lights and the function room got to Jacenko, who said she felt like “she was in Barbados”.

“I’m schvitzing!” she exclaimed, causing the crowd to laugh.

Jacenko also opened up about why she continued to work so hard — and wouldn’t feel guilty about it.

They walk in to learn Oliver’s fate. Picture: Craig Greenhill

The couple look understandably stressed. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

“The reality is my job is to provide my family with a nice lifestyle … Ultimately you’ve worked to provide a lifestyle, to provide a lifestyle, to provide for their school needs, to make sure they can do their ballet and gymnastics,” she said.

“If I don’t work I can’t provide for them.”

Despite the MC, Alison Rice from POPSUGAR, telling fans Jacenko could only stay for five minutes after the event, Jacenko posed with a long line of fans for more than half an hour.

Afterwards she posted a photo to her in her $5000 Gucci outfit in the lift.

“Today in Gucci,” she posted.