Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Founder and group managing director of TH Group Bhd, Lei Lin Thai (pic), has been charged with insider trading of the company’s shares, which allegedly took place in 2008, at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court yesterday.

Lei, claimed trial to all 53 counts of insider trading brought against him by the Securities Commission (SC). The alleged offence is under Section 188 (2) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA), which is punishable by a maximum 10 years’ prison and a fine of not less than RM1 million.

According to the charge sheet, Lei traded some 2.77 million TH Group shares between June 5, 2008 and Sept 22, 2008 while he was in possession of information that was not generally available.

It was alleged that Lei knew of the proposed privatisation of TH Group via a selective capital repayment exercise which was announced on Sept 29, 2008.

These transactions were said to have been carried out by Lei using central depository system accounts belonging to Wong Joon Mui, Lau Sin Ling, Chung Yin Mui and Ng Lai Sim. The four have also been charged as accomplices to Lei’s actions under sections 188 (2) and 370(1) of the same Act.

The charges against Lei, Chung, Wong and Lau were read before Sessions Court judge Mat Ghani Abdullah while the charges against Ng were before Sessions Court judge Abdul Rashid Daud.

Together with Lei, all four have claimed trial and the cases will be called before the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court 1 on March 3. The court has allowed bail for Lei at RM300,000 and RM100,000 for each of his alleged accomplices.  

In a press statement, the SC said it will not hesitate to take action against insider trading to safeguard the integrity of the market.

“Those who are privy to inside information should not take advantage of it and those who aid or facilitate any abuse of such information must realise that they do so at the risk of inviting SC’s scrutiny,” said the regulator’s director of enforcement Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 30, 2015.

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