Former Genetic Technologies CEO convicted of market manipulation (ASIC, 2014)

Judgment entered

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In November 2014 ASIC reported that former Genetic Technologies chief executive Mervyn Jacobson was convicted by a Victorian Supreme Court jury of 33 counts of manipulating GTG shares and two counts of conspiring to manipulate them in 2006, allegedly to manage margin calls on his loans. Sentencing was set for 19 November 2014. The $22,000 in the release is a maximum fine per charge, not a penalty imposed.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced this matter on November 5, 2014 as release 14-291MR. The respondent named is Mervyn Jacobson (1 individual, 0 entities).

The jury found Jacobson guilty on 5 November 2014 under Corporations Act section 1041A of trading likely to create or maintain an artificial price for GTG shares between May and November 2006, including conspiracies with others including his daughter. This library tags the matter as price manipulation.

The release references a parallel criminal proceeding. Where a criminal case exists, the civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Price manipulation — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2014-11-05 ASIC media release

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• ASIC media release

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.