Vaughan Bowen indicted on insider trading charges (ASIC, 2023)

Dismissed

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In May 2023 ASIC announced that Vaughan Bowen was indicted on two counts of insider trading over the June 2019 disposal of Vocus Group shares. A jury found him not guilty of both counts after a nearly five-week trial in the County Court of Victoria, as ASIC reported on 13 December 2024.

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 indictment on May 12, 2023 as release 23-124MR.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions indicted Bowen on May 10, 2023 in the County Court of Victoria, which it may do directly after a magistrate declines to commit an accused for trial.

This is the continuation of the matter in release 21-245MR; the earlier record had no defendant name.

Outcome: ASIC release 24-276MR, dated 13 December 2024, says a jury found Bowen, the former Vocus chair, not guilty of both insider trading counts relating to his disposal of more than 5.5 million Vocus shares on 4 June 2019, after a trial of nearly five weeks in the Melbourne County Court. ASIC had alleged he sold while holding inside information about the withdrawal of a takeover bid. The acquittal ends the prosecution; no penalty applies. This record continues the matter in release 21-245MR, which is already recorded as dismissed on the same date, so the two records describe one case.

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. 2023-05-12 ASIC media release
2. 2024-12-13 ASIC announces Bowen found not guilty of both counts after jury trial (County Court of Victoria)

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 (not guilty)

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.