Bank chiefs got levy tip-offs
Hinch demands AFP probe, fearing ‘insider trading’
TWO of the big four bbank's bosses separately found out details of Scout Morrision's Budget plan to rip $6.2 billion from them after meetings with worried investor.
It is understood they learned of the tax more than six hours before its unveiling.
The news comes as the Australian Federa Police confirmed it was valuating whether to investigate claims of insider trading around the Budget leak, which saw $14 billion wiped from banks shares on Tuesday afternoon. Lastnight, federal senator Derryn Hinch outlined details of a let-ter he wrote to the AFP asking for an investigation.
In a Budget reply speech, Senator Hinch said he wanted to know if any of the short-sellers of bank stocks “had any connection with Capital Hill”.
“As I said in my letter to AFP Commissioner (Andrew) Colvin – this is a classic crimi-nal case of insider trading,” Senator Hinch said. “It could well be the biggest case of in-sider trading in Australian his-tory. It makes Steve Vizard’s insider trading sound like Monopoly money.
“I contacted the feds be-cause they can easily find out who sold short on Tuesday. And I asked them to see if those sellers had any connec-tion with Capital Hill.
“Did it involve a federal em-ployee or employees? A ministerial staffer or staffers, or even a politician or a politician’s staff ?” he asked.
Senator Hinch said there were reports that some banks were briefed “sometime ago” about the modelling for a tax, but were given no hint it would be in the Budget. An AFP spokesman confirmed that it had received correspondence from Senator Hinch yesterday.
“The AFP are undertaking an evaluation of the matter re-ferred and as such it would not be appropriate to comment further ,” he said.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has started trawling trading patterns to see if there were any suspicious movements before the Budget.
A spokesman said: “ASIC monitors market movements and routinely analyses how these may have occurred to determine whether information has been appropriately disseminated to the market.”
It is believed two of the big four bank bosses learned of the tax from outside investors who raised it as a concern.
The government had planned to drop the bombshell in a 6.30pm phone hook-up between Treasury Secretary John Fraser and the bankers on Budget night.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has described any call for an insider trading inquiry as a “ridiculous suggestion”.