Former director, Mr Benjamin Amzalak, has been sentenced in the District Court of New South Wales having pleaded guilty to an offence of market manipulation, following an ASIC investigation.

Mr Amzalak, of Bondi, NSW, has been sentenced to two years of imprisonment to be served by way of intensive correction order, which includes a condition that he perform 300 hours of community service. 

He has been sentenced for taking part in transactions that had or were likely to have the effect of creating an artificial price for trading in shares of Precious Metal Resources Limited (PMR) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).  

In sentencing, his Honour, Acting Judge Madgwick, remarked that these types of offences undermine the public’s confidence in the integrity of the market and that investors are entitled to have a fair chance to trade on honest market information.

Mr Amzalak was formerly a director of Hudson Resources Limited and Raffles Capital Limited.  He was also the Investor Relationship Officer of PMR and Sovereign Gold Company Limited.

Between 12 June 2013 and 2 August 2013, Mr Amzalak used trading accounts in the name of Hudson Corporate Limited and Sing Capital Pty Limited to complete either buy or sell transactions in PMR shares on eight separate occasions for the sole or dominant purpose of setting an artificial price for the shares of PMR.

The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

Background

ASIC commenced an investigation into trading in the shares of PMR and associated companies following detection by our surveillance system.

PMR is now known as Frontier Capital Group Limited (ACN 145 105 148).