Roxy Jacenko’s husband has broken his silence on why he deserved a second chance after insider trading on his way to becoming Australia’s next billionaire.

Oliver Curtis this week insisted he was a ‘very young man’ who made a ‘mistake’ after he was convicted and sent to jail in 2016 for insider trading.

Curtis was convicted in June 2016 of insider trading using confidential information, and served 12 months of a two-year prison sentence.

The former investment banker was found guilty of using confidential tips provided by his old school chum John Joseph Hartman on 45 occasions.

The pair conducted their activities via encrypted messages on a BlackBerry phone between May 2007 and June 2008 to illegally trade on shifts in share prices.

Curtis was aged 30 when he was convicted, but was about 22 when he committed the offences.

He initially pleaded not guilty but this week finally admitted his crimes during a revealing interview on the Rampart Talks podcast.

Host Joe Aston ‘brought up the elephant in the room’ and asked Curtis if he still maintained his innocence. 

Convicted criminal Oliver Curtis this week revealed he was a ‘very young man’ who made a ‘mistake’ after he was convicted and sent to jail in 2016 for insider trading

Curtis is married to glamorous Australian businesswoman Roxy Jacenko

Jacenko is a successful PR businesswoman

‘Well, look Joe, I mean, let’s just talk about some facts, it’s coming on 20 years ago okay?’ he said.

‘I was a young man, a very young man for that matter, I was in a situation which meant I had little to no, kind of, people around me as far as what I was doing.

‘I was silly, I was stupid and I made a mistake.

‘I can tell you from the moment there was, I guess, the knock on the door, quite literally, and there was a (section) 128 enforcement order from ASIC, which is obviously just an investigative process.

‘Obviously I realised I’d done something gravely stupid.’

Curtis also said he wished he had ‘listened to advice’ before engaging in the illegal conduct. 

‘What I can tell you today, fast-forward 20 years, is if I had my time again of course I’d do different things, naturally,’ he said.

‘I absolutely know the impact this has had on my life, on my family’s life, on the business’s life for that matter.’

Curtis was taken away in handcuffs by prison officers after his conviction for insider trading for which he was sentenced to a maximum of two years

Curtis with his wife Roxy Jacenko and their children Pixie and Hunter

Curtis also said many people asked if he was driven by the desire for ‘redemption’ for his crimes. 

‘It’s definitely something for me,’ he admitted. ‘The lessons of the past are learned and are something I am sure I am open about, and acknowledge and own.

‘I think that in acknowledging and owning your mistakes of the past, you naturally should be able to get a second chance.

‘Redemption is not about an F-you situation, to turn around and say “F you” to everybody.

‘It’s more so about turning around and proving the redemption is based on making sure that you can set an example for your children. 

‘Redemption’s an absolutely essential part of chapter two, because we’re probably only at chapter two as far as I’m concerned.’

Aston flew to Singapore to interview Curtis who was keen to spruik his AI company Firmus Technologies.

Just under eight years after his maximum prison sentence expired, Curtis is riding the wave of success of the artificial intelligence infrastructure business.

Curtis is reportedly preparing to float Firmus on the ASX, meaning it will become a publicly listed company on the stock exchange

After her husband was taken away in handcuffs, Jacenko marched from the court to her waiting car, as security guards pushed media out of the way

In the process of building the company, the 40-year-old is turning northern Tasmania into an AI version of Silicon Valley, California’s global technology hub.

He co-founded the business after walking out of Cooma Correctional Centre on parole and is building Australia’s first green AI factory on 5-hectares in Launceston, with the development dubbed Project Southgate.

Project Southgate is earmarked for use by global AI giants Meta, Amazon and Microsoft to train and run their large AI language models, and has attracted significant equity funding to Firmus which, over just two months late last year, tripled its valuation to $6billion.

Now Curtis is reportedly preparing to float Firmus on the ASX, meaning it will become a publicly listed company on the stock exchange.

However, before any company can issue an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and go live issuing shares and beginning to trade, its CEOs or directors must be found to be of ‘good fame and character’.

This is determined by the ASX board and listings and compliance teams via verified criminal records and bankruptcy or insolvency checks.

The Daily Mail understands there is no ‘ten year rule’ which means a person can pass the ‘good fame and character requirement’ if their criminal activity happened more than a decade ago.

The ASX listings rules specifically say that criminal records of any crime incurring a five-year maximum prison sentence, or ‘any criminal offence involving fraud, dishonesty, misrepresentation, concealment of material facts or breach of their duties as a director or officer of the company’ must be disclosed by applicants.

Curtis on the way to court with wife Jacenko who wore $1,100 YSL suede lace-up heels and dressed in thousands of dollars’ worth of designer clothes during the three-week trial

Curtis will mark nine years in June since he was paroled on his conviction of conspiracy to insider trade, and if he is one of the listing applicants to the ASX for the float of Firmus, several factors will be taken into consideration.

These include the time that has elapsed since his offence, his age at the time, his conduct since, and any contrition or awareness expressed about the offending.

Curtis and co-offender Hartman had been best mates at Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview, the elite private Jesuit boarding school on Sydney’s lower north shore.

Hartman flipped and turned in his former best mate to authorities. He was also jailed when aged 25 in 2010 and served 15 months in prison.

On the flipside, Curtis and his PR guru partner Jacenko married in a lavish ceremony at Quay restaurant on Sydney harbour in March 2012.

She wore a $250,000 Vera Wang dress that was flown in from Los Angeles on a first-class seat.

Curtis gifted a white Ferrari convertible to Jacenko as a wedding present.