Market Manipulation. Search

Market riggers sentenced in ASX ‘pump and dump’ case (ASIC, 2025)

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 December 2025 ASIC announced that Larissa Quinlan, Kurt Stuart, Emma Summer and Syed Yusuf had been convicted and sentenced in the Sydney District Court to intensive corrections orders of between 14 months and two years for the Telegram-organised ASX pump and dump, with fines on three of them and a pecuniary penalty order against Yusuf.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency ASIC
Release number 25-315MR
Date filed 2025-12-22
Status judgment
Asset class equities
Criminal parallel Yes: sentenced (Quinlan, Stuart, Summer and Yusuf (intensive correction orders of 14 months to 2 years, so no custodial months recorded)), Sydney District Court
Defendants Syed Yusuf (individual) ; Larissa Quinlan (individual) ; Emma Summer (individual) ; Kurt Stuart (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged Corporations Act s.1041B (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques Chat group pumps , Pump and dump

What was ordered

Civil penalty
—
Disgorgement
—
Prejudgment interest
—
Total relief
—
Alleged gain
—
Penalty as published
A$8k

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. This regulator states penalties in AUD. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced this matter on December 22, 2025 as release 25-315MR. The respondents named are Larissa Quinlan, Kurt Stuart, Emma Summer and Syed Yusuf (4 individuals, 0 entities).

The four, who pleaded guilty in June 2025 to conspiring to rig the market and to proceeds-of-crime offences, were sentenced to intensive corrections orders running from 14 months (Yusuf) to two years (Stuart), with community service. Fines of A$8,015, A$22,270 and A$16,029 were imposed on Quinlan, Stuart and Summer, and Yusuf was ordered to pay A$13,465 under the Proceeds of Crime Act. This library tags the matter as chat group pumps and pump and dump.

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 2 techniques 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. 2025-12-22 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 3 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
2024-07-23 ASIC Charges laid in alleged Telegram ‘pump and dump’ conspiracy following ASIC investigation (ASIC, 2024) Judgment entered
2025-06-10 ASIC ASIC secures guilty pleas in Telegram ‘pump and dump’ action (2025) Judgment entered
2025-12-22 ASIC Market riggers sentenced in ASX ‘pump and dump’ case (ASIC, 2025)(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
ASIC secures guilty pleas in Telegram ‘pump and dump’ action (2025) ASIC 2025-06-10 Chat Group Pumps , Pump And Dump — judgment
Charges laid in alleged Telegram ‘pump and dump’ conspiracy following ASIC investigation (ASIC, 2024) ASIC 2024-07-23 Chat Group Pumps , Pump And Dump — judgment
SEC v. Michael J. Forster (pump and dump, 2026) SEC 2026-07-15 Pump And Dump — judgment
SEBI v. Hanif Shekh and others (price and volume manipulation in five scrips, Mauria Udyog and others, 2026) SEBI (India) 2026-06-30 Matched Orders , Pump And Dump +1 — judgment
SEC v. Geoffrey Allen Wall (pump and dump, 2026) SEC 2026-04-09 Pump And Dump — judgment
SEBI v. Yayaati Hasmukhray Nada and others (Telegram stock tips, Unison Metals, 2026) SEBI (India) 2026-02-05 Chat Group Pumps , Social Media Ramps — judgment

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.