Melbourne man charged with insider trading (ASIC, 2021)

Dismissed

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In September 2021 ASIC announced that Vaughan Bowen was charged with two counts of insider trading over a June 2019 sale of Vocus Group shares. ASIC's release of December 13, 2024 reports that a Melbourne County Court jury found him not guilty on both counts.

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

ASIC announced the charges on September 14, 2021 as release 21-245MR. ASIC alleged Bowen sold more than 5.5 million Vocus shares on June 4, 2019 while holding inside information that an EQT fund's takeover bid was likely to be withdrawn. A magistrate discharged him at committal in December 2022 and ASIC release 23-124MR records that he was later indicted directly on the same charges.

Outcome: ASIC release 24-276MR, published on December 13, 2024, says a jury in the Melbourne County Court acquitted Bowen of both insider trading counts after a trial of nearly five weeks. It adds that the matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions following an ASIC referral. The status is recorded as dismissed because the record has no separate acquittal category; the release date is used as the outcome date since the verdict date was not stated.

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. 2021-09-14 ASIC media release
2. 2024-12-13 ASIC release 24-276MR: jury finds Bowen not guilty of both counts

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 media release 24-276MR (acquittal)

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.