The story behind Australia’s largest white-collar crime!
It’s not often that I stumble on new trends right from the get-go, but this time as the Australian Financial Review (AFR) released its True Crime podcast series ‘The Sure Thing’- I was there from the very beginning.
You may or may not remember the news reporting of this when it happened, when 2 uni mates hatched an insider trading scam which made them $7.8 Million in only 9 months? One Australian Bureau of Statistics Analyst (Christopher Hill) would pass on employment figures (ahead of their official release) which he crunched monthly, and in the hands of his National Australia Bank broker friend, would then purchase Australian dollars short, and then sell the currency for a profit after the employment figures were officially released- pushing the Australian dollar up or down. While the plan was simple in its application, but Lukas Kamay (the Broker) had other ideas in mind, undermining their original safe bet and would invest huge amounts which then drew attention to themselves- bringing the full force of the law on them.
The AFR reporting and production, led by Angus Grigg, was surprisingly top-notch (for an Australian production), with sound effects, clever weaving of the story to maximise intrigue and engagement, while the use of interviews with primary sources and specialists were used to great effect! And to top off the 6-episode series, there was a twist waiting for us part way through, resulting in an altogether surprising ending to the real-life story!
Look, it was great that I caught onto this podcast right from the start- so that I could recommend it to friends which allowed me to wait for them to loop back to me, super appreciative of my recommendation. But the downsides were the seemingly interminable waits in-between episodes (weekly drops), which felt brutal now that we’re so use to ‘on demand’. So, as I type up this recommendation, my memories of the first few episodes are hazy, as it was over 2 months ago! Perhaps I need to re-listen to them?
If you want to binge on ‘The Sure Thing’, a top shelf Australian True Crime story, click HERE to start listening now!
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