Australian Story: Sept 27

Next week Australian Story goes behind the scenes of the AFP investigation into the biggest insider trading case in Australian history.

This episode is introduced by journalist and podcaster Angus Grigg.

When Christopher Hill bumped into old university friend Lukas Kamay at a party in 2013, he never imagined that months later he would be at the centre of a scandal that would rock the country’s financial establishment.

A chance conversation led to a deal for Chris to share yet-to-released data from his employer, the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Lukas then used the information to trade on the Australian dollar on the foreign exchange market.

“It wasn’t just your typical vanilla insider trading investigation,” says Angus Grigg, who made a podcast about the crime. “This involved the corruption of a Commonwealth government employee.”

“When you make a decision over and over again with no negative consequences, you just you stop thinking about what you’re doing really,” says Chris Hill.

The audacious insider trading scheme came unstuck when Lukas’s skyrocketing deals set off red flags and a combined ASIC-AFP investigation eventually arrested the two men.

“You see movies like, the Wolf of Wall Street. But to actually see it play out in front of you, I’m going to remember it for a while,” says AFP money tracker, Kylie Standing.

Now working as a risk analyst for the man who first tipped off the authorities, Chris Hill says he’s learned his lesson.

“I guess I’m disappointed to some extent that I managed to get myself involved in something like that. I definitely take full responsibility for, you know, for everything I’ve done,” he says.

Producers: Mayeta Clark and Kirstin Murray

8pm Monday on ABC.