ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview and analysis of the primary elements of Australian insider trading laws. The first element of insider trading is that a person possesses certain information, which in turn must be ‘inside information’. ASIC v Citigroup was a set of unsuccessful civil penalty proceedings brought against a corporation for insider trading, and in that case the issue arose as to whether an ‘uncommunicated thought process’ was a supposition that could amount to inside information. The meaning of the term ‘information’ in the context of insider trading did come before the High Court of Australia in 2012 in Mansfield and Kizon v R. Thus, information may come in many forms, which can be variously described as facts, details, data or gossip. Certainly, in respect of criminal offences which relate to tangible property, the element of possession is generally satisfied where a person has either physical control or custody of that property.
