KUALA LUMPUR – The court today sided with the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) in its civil suit against Datuk E Sreesanthan for insider trading.
According to SC’s statement today, judge Azizul Azmin Adnan found that Sreesanthan had breached Section 89E (2) (a) of the Securities Industry Act 1982 when he acquired 600,000 shares of Worldwide Holdings Bhd between June 7, 2006 and July 11, 2011.
“In its decision, the high court found that Datuk Sreesanthan was in possession of material non-public information relating to the proposed privatisation of Worldwide undertaken by Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor by way of a member’s scheme of arrangement under section 176 of the Companies Act 1965,” said the statement.
The proposed privatisation of Worldwide was subsequently announced to Bursa Malaysia on August 23, 2006.
Sreesanthan was a senior partner in a law firm and acted as a legal adviser for the proposed privatisation of Worldwide.
In allowing the SC’s claim, the court instructed Sreesanthan to pay to the commission RM1.98 million being an amount equal to three times the profits gained as a result of the insider trading.
Sreesanthan was also ordered to pay the SC a civil penalty of RM1 million and barred from being a director of any public listed company for 10 years starting November 18.
The SC was also awarded costs of RM100,000.
In 2012, Sreesanthan was charged with seven counts of insider trading in the shares of Sime Darby Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd, UEM World Bhd and VADS Bhd. – The Vibes, November 4, 2020
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