A Victorian man has been sentenced in the County Court of Victoria yesterday to a total of 15 months imprisonment for trading $7.14 million of ASX-listed securities between his own brokerage accounts, despite repeated warnings.
Mr Behzad Eghrari, of Vermont South, is to be released forthwith upon entering a recognisance to be of good behaviour for a period of 2 years.
On 13 November 2025, Mr Eghrari pleaded guilty to three market manipulation charges involving Investigator Resources Limited (ASX: IVR), Silver Mines Ltd (ASX: SVL), and Lumos Diagnostics Holdings Ltd (ASX: LDX).
In a statement of agreed facts filed with the Court, Mr Eghrari admitted to executing 679 trades between four share trading accounts he controlled between 3 August 2022 and 23 January 2024.
His trades accounted for up to 73% of the total daily trading volume in the relevant shares, creating a false or misleading appearance of active trading in the market.
Mr Eghrari was warned on multiple occasions by one of his brokers, Bell Direct, about his trading activity - through phone calls and order cancellations - but continued to execute such trades.
This activity, known as 'wash trading', is a form of market manipulation and occurs when an individual or entity executes buy and sell orders for the same financial product without any change in beneficial ownership.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, 'Wash trading artificially inflates trading volumes and prices, creating a false impression of genuine market activity, distorting the market.
'This practise is even more damaging in small-cap securities, where even small trades can trigger significant price swings.
'Market manipulation in any form can cause significant harm, damaging the integrity of financial markets, disadvantaging honest participants and eroding trust in our financial system.'
Misconduct damaging market integrity, including market manipulation is an enduring enforcement priority for ASIC.
The volume of the wash trades ranged from 1 to 700,000 per transaction, with values from $0.05 to $29,587.
Mr Eghrari used three Commonwealth Securities Limited (CommSec) brokerage accounts and one Bell Direct account, all in his control, to execute the wash trades.
The matter was prosecuted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) (CDPP) after an ASIC investigation.
Background
Mr Eghrari was charged with three counts of market manipulation on 14 March 2025 (25-039MR) contrary to ss1041B(1)(a) and 1311(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).
The maximum penalty for each offence is 15 years imprisonment and/or a fine the greater of:
- 4,500 penalty units ($999,000), or
- Three times the amount gained, or loss avoided by the offence, whichever is higher.
In recent years, ASIC has taken enforcement action against market manipulation matters through the CDPP:
- In April 2024, Henry Heng, founder of listed bottled water company Eneco Refresh, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for using share trading accounts held in the names of his family to manipulate the Eneco Refresh share price on 24 occasions between 18 December 2020 and 15 December 2021(24-082MR),
- In May 2023, Gabriel Govinda (known online as 'Fibonarchery') was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment after pleading guilty to 23 charges of market manipulation (23-116MR),
- In January 2023, Don Evans was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment for conspiring to manipulate Quantum Resources Limited (Quantum) shares with former Quantum director Avrohom Kimelman and corporate consultant Benjamin Cooper (23-017MR). In December 2022, Mr Cooper was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for his role in the conspiracy (22-354MR). In November 2021, Mr Kimelman was sentenced to 18-months' imprisonment for insider trading and market manipulation offences (21-297MR). Quantum Resources is now known as Nova Minerals Limited.
- In May 2021, Zhonghan Wu (also known as John Wu), former chief financial officer of Traditional Therapy Clinics Limited was sentenced to an intensive corrections order for one year and 10 months, including a condition he perform 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to one charge of market manipulation and two fraud charges (21-103MR),
- In 2018, Stefan Boitcheff was sentenced to one year and nine months' imprisonment after pleading guilty to two charges of market manipulation related to contracts for difference (CFD) products (18-099MR).
All offenders (excluding Mr Wu) were released immediately pursuant to a recognisance release order - a court order requiring a financial bond and a commitment to maintain good behaviour for a specified period of time. This was in addition to each offender agreeing to pay a financial penalty for their crime/s.
