The Block bidder jailed for insider trading

A man who bought an apartment in The Block: Fan vs Faves has been jailed for seven years and three months after pleading guilty to insider trading, money laundering and identity theft.

Former NAB banker Luke Kamay was one of two men involved in a $7 million insider trading scheme, described as the worst case of insider trading to come before the courts in Australia.

The 26 year old was jailed for seven years and three months with a non-parole period of four years and six months.

Former Australian Bureau of Statistics employee Christopher Hill, 25, was jailed for three years and three months with a non-parole period of two years after pleading guilty to insider trading, identity theft and abuse of public office charges.

Fairfax reports Hill agreed to use his position at the ABS headquarters in Canberra to send Kamay employment, trade and retail figures moments before they were released to the market. Kamay, based at NAB in Melbourne, used the data to make trades on currency markets based on which direction the Australian dollar was expected to go.

Last April Kamay bid $2.375 million for Alisa and Lysandra’s Albert Park apartment, but the property and $6.5 million from bank accounts were seized by Federal Police after an arrest in May.

In phone and text message conversations intercepted by police, Kamay discussed buying The Block apartment in text messages saying it was “good value.”

“Do you watch The Block?” he texted. “Cos I want to buy one of them.”

“I’m calling [the] agent tomorrow … It comes fully furnished.”

The apartment was later resold.