Market Manipulation. Search

Former director convicted of market manipulation (ASIC, 2019)

Judgment entered

Checked against the primary document on October 2, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In September 2019 ASIC reported that former director Benjamin Amzalak was sentenced in the New South Wales District Court to two years imprisonment, served as an intensive correction order with 300 hours of community service, after pleading guilty to market manipulation in Precious Metal Resources shares in 2013.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency ASIC
Release number 19-245MR
Date filed 2019-09-09
Status judgment
Asset class equities
Criminal parallel Yes: sentenced (Amzalak (two years by intensive correction order, after a guilty plea)), District Court of New South Wales
Sentence 2 years
Defendants Benjamin Amzalak (individual)
Techniques Price manipulation

What was ordered

Civil penalty
—
Disgorgement
—
Prejudgment interest
—
Total relief
—
Alleged gain
—

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 September 9, 2019 as release 19-245MR. The respondent named is Benjamin Amzalak (1 individual, 0 entities).

The release says Amzalak used accounts in the names of Hudson Corporate Limited and Sing Capital Pty Limited for eight buy or sell trades in Precious Metal Resources shares aimed at setting an artificial price. This library tags the matter as price manipulation.

The conduct is recorded against equities.

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.

Timeline

  1. 2019-09-09 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.

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.

Date filed Agency Record Status
2017-09-19 ASIC Sydney man faces charges for market manipulation (ASIC, 2017) Judgment entered
2019-09-09 ASIC Former director convicted of market manipulation (ASIC, 2019)(this record) Judgment entered

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.

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

Action Agency Filed Technique Penalty Status
CFTC v. George Santos (price manipulation, 2026) CFTC 2026-07-31 Price Manipulation $17.5k settled
Victorian man sentenced in market manipulation case (ASIC, 2025) ASIC 2025-12-12 Price Manipulation , Wash Trading — judgment
ASIC v. Delta Power & Energy (Vales Point) Pty Ltd (price manipulation, 2025) ASIC 2025-06-30 Price Manipulation , Marking The Close — filed
Victorian man charged over alleged market manipulation (ASIC, 2025) ASIC 2025-03-14 Price Manipulation , Wash Trading — judgment
SEC v. Marco Babini, et al. (price manipulation, 2024) SEC 2024-09-27 Price Manipulation — judgment
CFTC v. TOTSA TotalEnergies Trading SA (price manipulation, 2024) CFTC 2024-08-27 Price Manipulation $48m settled

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.