Silk lets fly: trader friend ‘a bargaining chip’

John Hartman was accused yesterday of allegedly using his friend Oliver Curtis as a ‘bargaining chip’.

Oliver Curtis and wife Roxy Jacenko outside the NSW Supreme Court yesterday. Picture: David Moir

Star ASIC witness and convicted insider trader John Hartman was accused yesterday of making up an alleged agreement between ­himself and former best friend ­Oliver Curtis to use his friend as a “bargaining chip”, as well as attempt­ing to fix a horse race ­involving a “very high-profile jockey”.

On his second day of giving ­evidence at Mr Curtis’s insider trading trial in the NSW Supreme Court, Mr Hartman sustained a day of relentless attack on his character and reliability, that at one stage included the former trader being berated for lying about a failed university grade to his former employer.

Mr Curtis is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit ­insider trading, allegedly conspiring with Mr Hartman to make about $1.5 million in insider trades ­between 2007-08.

Mr Hartman has served 15 months for his role in the alleged conspiracy. In return for a reduced prison sentence, he turned star witness for the Australian Securit­ies & Investments Commission against his longtime friend.

The pair allegedly made millions after Mr Hartman would send trading tip-offs he got while working as an equities trader at Orion Asset Management.

He said the tips were sent over a secure BlackBerry messaging system to Mr Curtis, who would then place buy contracts for difference in a CMC markets accounts corresponding with the Orion positions.

Central to ASIC’s case against Mr Curtis was that there was an agreement to conduct the trades and split the profits 50-50, distributed to Mr Hartman through free rent, cash, a motorcycle and mini coupe and an American holiday.

Under cross-examination, Mr Curtis’s lawyer Murugan Than­garaj SC questioned why Mr Hartman would pay tens of thousands for the American holiday and transfer funds for a luxury Bondi flat the two shared if there was an agreement between the pair that Mr Curtis pay.

Mr Thangaraj also claimed the Ducati motorcycle was a birthday present from a “generous mate”, claiming Mr Curtis had bought his father the same bike as a birthday present that year.

Rather than being generous, Mr Hartman told the court, Mr Curtis “liked to show off”.

Mr Thangaraj accused Mr Hartman of making up the idea of a pact between the two, saying “there was no agreement in the way claimed” and he was using his friend as a “bargaining chip” to cut a better deal with ASIC.

“There was an agreement sir,” Mr Hartman replied. He said he was “desperate” and thought ASIC “could’ve already known about Ollie”. “I knew I’d been caught. I knew that the authorities would find out.”

The court was also shown ­details of emails between Mr Hartman and his brother, former senior UBS banker and amateur jockey Edward Hartman.

The pair allegedly conspired to set up a Betfair account to have a “very high-profile jockey” lose a race that they would take odds-on, with the two discussing paying the jockey $10,000 for a $100,000 win

“I have a way for us to make a lot of money ... Are you able to set up a Betfair account in someone else’s names?” Edward Hartman wrote in an email in August 2008.

“I have a very high-profile jockey that will have some very short price losers for us to lay. But ­nobody can know but you and me,” Edward wrote.

According to the emails, John Hartman accepted the idea, but then suggests just using his own name , adding, “as long as you don’t use phone or email there is no way to prove anything”.

Mr Hartman told the court ­yesterday that the fixed race never went through and the pair “defin­itely weren’t masterminds”.