Hanlong Mining exec jailed for 15 months THE former vice president of China's Hanlong Mining has been sentenced to at least 15 months behind bars for three insider trading offences. Calvin Zhu, 31, was jailed in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday after admitting to providing inside information while working for three companies between 2006 and 2011. The information provided by Zhu was used by others, including his mother-in-law, to carry out trading that made a total profit of $1.3 million, of which Zhu received $370,000. In sentencing Zhu to a maximum of two years and three months in jail, Judge Peter Hall said he had considered Zhu's guilty plea, his remorse, his toxic work environment and the damage to his otherwise good reputation from widespread media reports. However, he stressed that insider trading was a "serious offence" and there was a need for general deterrence. "General deterrence is a particularly important consideration in white-collar offences which are difficult to detect and prosecute successfully," Justice Hall told the court. A packed courtroom watched officers cuff a stoic Zhu and take him to prison. His pregnant wife wept quietly in the courtroom. Zhu's most serious charge relates to revealing information about Hanlong's $1.44 billion takeover offer for Sundance Resources and a $144 million offer for Bannerman Resources, both in 2011. China's Hanlong Group has proposed a takeover of Sundance, but is still awaiting approval of the bid by Chinese regulators. Zhu was suspended from Hanlong in 2011 after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) launched an investigation of several Hanlong employees. The remaining charges against Zhu relate to information he admitted providing about other takeovers while working for corporate adviser Caliburn Partnership and investment bank Credit Suisse.