A lawyer for the mastermind behind Australia's worst ever insider trading scam says the ex-banker's jail term should be reduced because his $7 million profit was relatively small.
Lukas James Kamay, 26, used market-sensitive data to conduct stock exchange trades then tried to cover his crime by spending some of the profit on a $2.375 million property renovated by TV show The Block.
Defence Barrister Chris Boyce SC told the Victorian Court of Appeal on Thursday the level of profit Kamay had made had to be viewed in comparison to the market.
"Look at it in respect of a market that is virtually an ocean of liquidly, in which $7 million is less than a drop," Mr Boyce said.
He told the court Forex daily trading was worth in excess of US$4 trillion.
"But for the level of profit, the Crown would not have submitted that this was the worst case of insider trading in this country," Mr Boyce said.
Kamay was jailed for seven years and three months, with a non-parole period of four years and six months, after pleading guilty to six charges of insider trading, one of money laundering and two of identity theft.
Mr Boyce said Victorian Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth gave too much weight to the dollar value of the scam and not enough weight to Kamay's youth, clean record and willingness to co-operate with authorities.
"He did virtually everything he could do to put things right," he said.
Justice Hollingworth said when sentencing in March Kamay's gross profit was the largest insider trading profit to come before an Australian court by a very considerable margin.
Crown prosecutors told the Court of Appeal Kamay's sentence was stern, but appropriately so.
"This was offending within the worst category," the Crown said.
Kamay used data provided by Australian Bureau of Statistics worker Christopher Russell Hill to conduct more than 45 stock exchange trades over eight months in 2013 and 2014.
The Crown said seven years overall out of a theoretical maximum of 40 was not manifestly excessive.
Hill was jailed for three years and three months for his role.
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