Oliver Curtis jailed for insider trading

Banker Oliver Curtis will serve at least a year in prison, as a judge said white-collar criminals needed to be punished.

Sydney banker Oliver Curtis has been ordered to serve a minimum of one year in jail after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit insider trading.

NSW Supreme Court judge Justice Lucy McCallum this morning sentenced Curtis, 30, to two years in jail, with a minimum of one year.

Justice McCallum said the “evidence persuaded me a sentence of imprisonment must be imposed in this case”, citing the need to punish white collar criminals. She warned against treating different classes of offenders unequally.

Curtis hugged his wife Roxy Jacenko, with the pair crying as he handed over personal possessions before being taken into custody.

She had pleaded for a non-custodial sentence, as Curtis is the primary carer of their two young children.

Roxy Jacenko leaves court after her husband’s sentencing. Pic: AAP

Curtis’s father Nick and his mother were also in court, remaining stoic throughout the sentencing.

Following a three-week trial Curtis had been found guilty of the conspiracy to commit insider trading after the jury found he conspired with former best friend John Hartman to make $1.4 million in insider trades.

Hartman served 15 months in prison.

Curtis was found to have agreed to receive stock market tips from Hartman while his friend was working as an equities deadlier at Orion Asset Management between 2006-07.

In sentencing, Justice McCallum told the court that “plainly personal gain was the motive for both men’s trading” to “fund a lifestyle of conspicuous extravagance.”

She said Curtis would have known at the time what he was doing was “very wrong”, despite being only 20 at the time.

Describing his behaviour as the “self-interested pursuit of wealth”, Justice McCallum said Curtis had shown “no contrition to any degree whatsoever” until being found guilty and agreeing to hand over $1.4m in profits.

The judge said this was in stark contrast to Mr Hartman who confessed early to ASIC.

“It is troubling that, unlike Mr Hartman, Mr Curtis has not embraced responsibility for his offending,” Justice McCallum said.

The trial heard that Curtis purchased a BlackBerry device for Hartman in May 2007 so the two could exchange tips, with Curtis allegedly telling Hartman at one point “there was no easier money in the world being made than this”.

Curtis allegedly paid Hartman his share of the profits throughout the purchase of a $20,000 Ducati and a $60,000 Mini Coupe, along with free rent accommodation in a luxury $3000 a week a year apartment on Bondi Beach and several cash payments.

Justice McCallum said she accepted Hartman’s evidence, finding him a “frank” witness who “endured a wholesale public attack on his character.”

The trials of Curtis and Hartman have captured the attention of Sydney, with the pair both coming from prominent families from the wealthy eastern suburbs. They were best friends, going back to their days at prestigious Sydney school St. Ignatius Riverview.

Hartman, a former equities trader at Orion, has already served 15 months in prison for his role in the alleged insider trading.

Hartman turned star witness for the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, having already testified against his former best friend at a committal hearing, alleging the pair made millions through tip-offs sent over a secure BlackBerry messaging system.

Hartman, now 30, has since turned his life around, taking an investment role with mining magnate Andrew Forrest in Mr Forrest’s charitable investments and personal business.

Curtis had faced a maximum five years in jail for insider trading.