A FORMER Macquarie fund manager who oversaw a team responsible for handling billions of pounds has told a court he was emotionally distressed when he tried to flee the country illegally earlier this month.
Oswyn De Silva, 36, under investigation for suspicious trades, tried to leave Australia with his brother via Perth on March 1, in defiance of a New South Wales Supreme Court order preventing him fleeing. He was stopped by federal police and has pleaded guilty to being in contempt of court.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is investigating trades that Mr De Silva allegedly engaged in between 2006, when he joined Macquarie in Australia, and 2007, when he was joint head of Global Property Securities in London and oversaw a team responsible for £2.7 billion in funds.
ASIC obtained court orders last month restraining Mr De Silva from leaving Australia.
Mr De Silva told the Supreme Court he used cocaine and was HIV positive and had been aiming to go overseas to seek treatment.
Justice George Palmer said yesterday he was not yet convinced Mr de Silva should be fined for the breach rather than sent to jail.
Justice Palmer said documents handed to him in Mr De Silva's defence referred to cocaine use, self-harm and his HIV positive status but there were ''considerable blanks'' in the story.
''What treatment has he had, where has he been receiving it and what does it involve?'' the judge asked Mr De Silva's barrister, Yaseen Shariff.
''I have no evidence about the sort of treatment that he thought - that he says he thought - he needed urgently overseas, that being the justification for his attempt to leave the country,'' Justice Palmer said. ''What is at stake here is Mr De Silva's liberty and it's not a light matter.''
Mr De Silva told the court he was living off his family's money, his only assets a condominium he was building in Malaysia and a car he owned in Britain. He said his permanent home was in Kuala Lumpur and he planned to leave Australia as soon as possible.
Justice Palmer adjourned the matter overnight to give Mr De Silva's legal team time to explain better his attempt to leave. Mr De Silva is due to return to court at 10 o'clock this morning.
