More teeth for Corporate Watchdog

The Federal Government is proposing sweeping changes to the criminal law provisions of the Corporations Act giving greater powers to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to investigate criminal conduct such as insider trading, market manipulation and misreporting.   If the legislation is passed, ASIC will have the power to tap telephones and will no longer need to serve a ‘Notice to Produce’ before then seeking an executing a search warrant in search for evidence.    The changes will also introduce significant increases in penalties for such conduct doubling the custodial penalties currently in force and increasing the fines for such offences to 15 times current levels.  More information Australian Financial Review 29 January 2010.

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