The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) meted out a three-year financial services ban on a Sydney-based stockbroker following investigations that showed he secretly obtained profits for relatives during Regional Express Holdings Ltd on-market share buyback.

William Frederick Klusman was ordered banned by ASIC after the corporate regulator had determined that while employed by the defunct Aequs Securities Pty Ltd (now Anziex Ltd), he had engaged in series of share transactions that allegedly spawned artificial price for trading in a financial product on the financial market.

Further, ASIC said that the stockbroker had violated the Corporations Act when he misrepresented a financial product by dispensing misleading information in the market, which transpired during his tenure at Aequs as an authorised representative.

The corporate regulator said that Mr Klusman lied and deceived the market when he issued a statement on September 17 2008 apparently confirming the circulating rumour that Macquarie Group Ltd at that time was planning to announce a rights issue, which the ASIC was a purely baseless statement.