ASIC v. Gabriel Govinda (price manipulation, 2022)

Judgment entered

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In June 2022, Gabriel Govinda, known online as "Fibonarchery", pleaded guilty to 23 charges of manipulating ASX-listed stocks, including trading between accounts he controlled, and 19 charges of illegally disseminating information about it; sentencing was to follow.

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 this matter on June 7, 2022 as release 22-133MR. The respondents named are Gabriel Govinda (1 individual, 0 entities).

The release reports pleas to 23 manipulation charges and 19 charges of illegally disseminating information about the manipulation. Between 2014 and 2015, Govinda used 13 trading accounts held in the names of friends and relatives to move the prices of 20 listed stocks, trading between accounts he controlled and placing dummy bids, then posted about the activity on the HotCopper forum.

This library tags the matter as price manipulation, pump and dump and wash trading, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

No monetary relief is recorded at this stage.

The release reports guilty pleas; sentencing was to follow.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 3 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.

• Price manipulation — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Pump and dump — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Wash trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2022-06-07 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.

• ASIC media release

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.

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.