KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — The High Court has found that the Securities Commision Malaysia (SC) had successfully proven its claim in a civil suit against Datuk Sreesanthan Eliathamby, 60, for insider trading.
SC said High Court judge Azizul Azmi Adnan found that Sreesanthan had breached Section 89E(2)(a) of the Securities Industry Act 1983 when he acquired a total of 600,000 shares of Worldwide Holdings Bhd (Worldwide) between June 7, 2006 and July 11, 2006 while in possession of material non-public information.
“In its decision, the High Court found that 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,” it said in a statement, yesterday.
Sreesanthan was a senior partner in a law firm and had acted as a legal adviser for the proposed privatisation of Worldwide.
It said in allowing the SC’s claim, the court has ordered Sreesanthan to pay the SC RM1.98 million, being an amount equal to three times the profits gained from the insider trading.
Additionally, 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 a period of ten years, starting November 18, 2020.
The SC was also awarded costs of RM100,000.
— Bernama
