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Explain what will be the likely outcome against Bill? Addresses the relevant sections of the Corporations Act (Cth) 2001

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Question: Bill Johnson is a financial analyst working for a futures investment company. Bill's job involves researching and profiling companies to determine if these companies are ideal to invest in on behalf of their clients.

Bill discovers that IBN Ltd was about to undertake a $10billion takeover of a rival company called IMF. Bill now knows the exact date that this takeover bid is about to take place, and he knows that he can't disclose this to anyone. But the temptation of making a fortune if someone knew this confidential takeover by IBN is too good to pass.

Bill tells Violet to buy shares in IMF right now! But don't tell anyone!!! Violet knows Bill very well, and she knows that Bill is a financial analyst, and he's pretty cool, and he also likes koalas and fast cars. So Violet trusts Bill and buys $5,000.00 worth of shares in the IMF.

Violet is happy, and in her excitement, she tells her friends Rupeet and Manjinder to buy shares in IMF right now... but don't tell anyone!!! Rupeet and Manjinder trust Violet and they also buy shares in IMF. Rupeet buys $2,000.00 worth, and so too does Manjinder.

A couple of days later, INB made their takeover bid on IMF, and the share prices for IMF on the stock market went up from $10.00 per share to $1,000.00 a share! Violet, Rupeet and Manjinder were all very excited that their investment went up 100 fold!

The three of them gave Bill some money as a thankyou gift!

Bill was shocked when he asked Violet who are these two. Violet explained to Bill that they were her best friends. Bill was feeling rather worried and told Violet not to tell anyone!!! Rupeet and Manjinder couldn't help themselves with all the excitement of making lots of money on the stock market that soon the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the investigators from the Australian Securities Investments Commission (ASIC) raided the futures investment company and arrested Bill.

The AFP and ASIC also conducted a formal record of interviews with Violet, Rupeet and Manjinder, who told them, they got a hot tip from Bill!

Explain what will be the likely outcome against Bill?

Your answer addresses the relevant section/s of the Corporations Act (Cth) 2001.

ANSWER:
As per the relevant section of the corporations act 2001, every top executives including director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer of the organisation is expected to serve the best interest of the entity with utmost faith, due diligence and professional care. It is his duty to uphold the confidentiality and integrity of every information material to the organisation and its stakeholder. They should not try to make personal profits using the information of the organisation or by disclosing the same for the benefit of external parties.

In the given scenario, Bill, a financial officer of an organisation discloses a personal information to violet directly and to other individuals indirectly and assisted them to buy the shares of the organisation as it would witness a spike immediately after the takeover news. The takeover has increased the market price of the shares from $10 to $1000 causing significant increase profits to all three of them by 900%.This information is private and confidential to the organisation and the use of same for benefiting the external parties could amount to criminal offence. His degree could be suspended, imprisonment be charged upon him for a minimum of three years along with an immediate cash penalty as well.


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