Forum Archive Index - June 2000

["Oliver Shapleski" <oliver.shapleski@vuw.ac.nz>]

James, I wonder, how much of his millions have been made by making $50k a day using insider information???  His millions came from somewhere and if the insider trading regime is as weak as present comment suggests, he wasn't risking any of his millions at all.  

 

Interesting point about intention: the legislation says nothing about intention being required.  If you have inside information and you trade, then you have prima facie breached the regulations.

 

Perhaps I'm just harsh, but IMO there is NO WAY he could have mistaken the day that the announcement came out, and there is NO WAY he wasn't fully aware of the companies reulations on trading FLC shares.  If my memory serves me correctly, he didn't actually come forward s soon as the "mistake" was realised and say: "oops, silly me, what a doofus, look what I did".  I thought he changed his story once or twice until he found one plausible enough for some people to accept.  If that was an innocent mistake then I can't believe he still has a job somewhere for total stupidity.  If it was not an innocent mistake, then I can't believe he still has a job for total lack of integrity. 

 

And as for causing little harm, well... if you consider the complete undermining of and disdain for the SE rules to be little harm, then you probably either (a) don't have any shares in the market, or (b) aren't a small time investor who relies on the rules to save yourself from being exploited.  I certainly hope Mr Hoggard gets what should be coming to him and has to cough up as much as could possibly be required.  If the death penalty was an option I'd be fighting for it. 

 

James, what internal mechanisms does Direct Broking have in place to prevent the likes of Mr Hoggard buying shares like that?  Any at all?  (This isn't in any way an attack against you or brokers; just curious cos I know JB Were had the finger pointed at them after the whole affair was uncovered). 

 

Oliver

----- Original Message -----

From: James Lee

To: 'sharechat@sharechat.co.nz'

Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 5:53 PM

Subject: RE: [sharechat] Fletchers and Insider Trading

Gday

Has anyone actually thought if Mr Hoggard actually intended to do comitt insider trading.  Hoggard is a multi-millionare and it would seem totally bizarre that such a person would take trade under his own name for the possibility of 100k profit.  I would imagine his punishment will be on the slight side due to the very little harm caused.  A thought anyway.

 

James Lee

Direct Broking.

 

 

 From: Oliver Shapleski [mailto:oliver.shapleski@vuw.ac.nz]
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 11:02 AM
To: sharechat@sharechat.co.nz
Subject: [sharechat] Fletchers and Insider Trading

Was delighted to see an article in the Post last night that said Stephen Franks and Roger Kerr are pursuing punitive penalties for Kerry Hoggard.  About time someone did!  I was disgusted last week when Fletchers said they did not consider taking further action as necessary.  How important is integrity to them?  How did you Fletcher shareholders feel about the company not going any further?

 

The company has a DUTY to shareholders under the SecAmendment Act to take actions on behalf of shareholders.  If I was a shareholder of Fletchers I would already have served a notice on the company myself requiring that Fletchers take further action.  Lost his chair and paid back the profits?  What sort of deterrent is that?  The whole point of 300% penalties is to act as a deterrent - who are the company to say that the loss of job was a sufficient one? 

 

I can't wait to hear how the High Court deals with this one - if there is ANY integrity in the process at all there is no way Kerry Hoggard will get out of there paying less than another $100k.  My question then is: who gets the $100k?  My understanding was that only the company can take the action, and that the moeny goes to the company to act as compensation for damage to reputation.  If Stephen Franks is leading the action to restore FLC's reputation (and I assume with his expertise he knows that he can), where does the money go?

 

Oliver