ASIC v. Gabriel Govinda (price manipulation, 2023)

Judgment entered

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In May 2023 ASIC announced that Gabriel Govinda had been sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment, released immediately on a five-year recognisance of A$5,000, and fined A$42,840, after pleading guilty to 23 charges of manipulating ASX-listed shares and 19 charges of illegally disseminating information about it, the first sentence under Corporations Act s1041D.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

—

Alleged gain

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Penalty as published

A$42.8k

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 May 3, 2023 as release 23-116MR. The respondents named are Gabriel Govinda (1 individual, 0 entities).

The conduct ran from September 2014 to July 2015: trading between 13 accounts held in the names of friends and relatives, fake dummy bids across 20 stocks, and HotCopper posts promoting shares he held and had manipulated, so as to sell at higher prices. The release calls this pump and dump. The sentence is two and a half years with immediate release on a recognisance, plus a fine of A$42,840. This library tags the matter as price manipulation, pump and dump and wash trading.

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 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. 2023-05-03 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.