The Australian Federal Court, on the application of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), made the findings in historial overstatements in its financial reports. In reports for the year ending June 2019 and the half-year ending December 2019 (known as Half-year, or HY) 20, the company overstated its accounts by overstating revenue from the sale of goods and by including stock that was unsuitable for sale.

ASIC says "Those accounts were overstated by AUD31.77 million in FY19 and AUD36.6 million in HY20 as a result of the inclusion of the unsaleable inventory. The Court also found Noumi’s HY20 disclosed revenue from sale of goods was overstated by at least AUD9.8 million and its HY20 disclosed profit was overstated by at least AUD8.5 million."

This action is against the company which is listed on ASX. It produces dairy and vegetarian food. Civil penalty proceedings are pending against the company's former CEO and CFO.

All the actions are civil penalties for technical, regulatoryu breaches even though the deputy chairman of ASIC, Sarah Court said that such conduct causes "harm to investors by denying them the information they are entitled to, they also erode confidence in Australia’s financial markets". That sounds like market manipulation, which is a criminal offence, hence our headline.

Further reading:

Judgment - https://download.asic.gov.au/media/fm0mutv1/24-174mr-asic-v-noumi-limit…