Former Sydney investment banker charged with procuring insider trading (ASIC, 2016)

Dismissed

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In September 2016 ASIC announced that former Credit Suisse banker Darren Thompson faced 11 charges of procuring insider trading by a friend, Michael Hull. On 23 May 2017, after a committal hearing in the Sydney Local Court, a magistrate declined to commit him for trial on any of the charges.

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 the charges on September 20, 2016 as release 16-316MR.

ASIC alleged Thompson, a vice president in Credit Suisse's Australian investment banking department, procured Hull on 11 occasions between May 2008 and June 2011 to buy shares in seven listed companies on inside information from his work; Hull's profits were about A$492,000. Hull had already been sentenced to 17 months' jail in June 2016.

The A$220,000 earlier recorded as a penalty is the maximum fine per offence given in the release, not an amount imposed; none has been.

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.

ASIC's release 17-158MR reports that on 23 May 2017, after a two-day committal hearing at the Sydney Downing Centre, Local Court Magistrate Greg Grogin did not commit Mr Thompson for trial on any of the 11 charges, so the charges did not proceed to trial. No conviction, penalty or sentence resulted, and the allegations were never tested at a trial. The release as read does not say whether any further step was taken afterwards, and this page has not checked for one. Checked on 2026-10-04.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2016-09-20 ASIC media release
2. 2017-05-23 Local Court magistrate declines to commit Thompson for trial on all 11 charges (ASIC 17-158MR)

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
• ASIC release 17-158MR (charges dismissed at committal)

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

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.