Rogue trader applied vacuum pump to penis

A former Macquarie banker, under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for insider trading while he ran a 2.7 billion fund, has pleaded guilty to contempt of court after trying to flee the country earlier this month. During the hearing yesterday in the NSW Supreme court, it emerged that Oswyn De Silva had tried to return to his native Malaysia to seek "urgent medical treatment", that he had abused cocaine, was HIV positive, was suffering from depression and panic attacks and had tried to harm himself over a period of time in February.

In an affidavit submitted to the court, Mr De Silva said he had applied "a vacuum pump to my penis ... because I felt that it was my penis that caused me to be infected with HIV and I was consumed with self-loathing". Mr De Silva subsequently developed lesions and swelling on his penis, but he continued to use the vacuum pump to cause further harm. ASIC senior executive Allan James Scadden told the court in another affidavit that Mr De Silva was the portfolio manager of the Asian component of two London-based Macquarie funds. He said that on or about June 26, 2008, ASIC had received information from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) regarding Mr De Silva's trading activities.


Photo from here.

This included details of 29 alleged transactions by Mr De Silva just before large securities orders had been placed by the Macquarie funds. Mr Scadden claims that Mr De Silva then sold the securities after the Macquarie funds had entered the market."The purchases ... were relatively large purchases and generally increased the price of the securities, allowing Mr De Silva to sell at a profit," Mr Scadden said in his affadavit.

The affadavit included an estianmtion from the MAS that the profit made by Mr De Silva between December 2006 and April 2007 was more than $3.6 million. Mr De Silva told the court that his assets now consisted of a car in London and a condominium built in Malaysia. His defence pleaded for a financial penalty rather than custodial, but the the judge held over sentences as he was concerned there were too many gaps in the information provided by the defence and wanted to be sure that it would be Mr De Silva who was punished, not his family.