Court finds ex-deputy chairman of Patimas Computers liable for insider trading

KUALA LUMPUR - The High Court today ruled that the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) had successfully proven its claim in a civil suit against Datuk Raymond Yap Wee Hin, a former deputy chairman of Patimas Computers Bhd (Patimas), for insider trading.

In allowing the SC’s claim, judicial commissioner Adlin Abdul Majid declared that Yap had breached the relevant securities laws and ordered him to pay a sum of RM3.28 million, being an amount equal to three times the losses avoided by him as a result of the insider trading.

In addition, Yap was also ordered to pay the SC a civil penalty of RM1 million and is barred from being a director of any public listed company for a period of five years, starting April 7, 2022.

The SC was also awarded costs of RM100,000, the regulator said in a statement here today.

In a suit filed in 2020, the SC claimed that Yap had breached Section 188(2)(a) and (b) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA) when he disposed of a total of 43.82 million Patimas shares held by Law Siew Ngoh, the former managing director of Patimas, from June to July 2012.

He committed this breach whilst in possession of material, non-public information relating to audit queries and issues regarding the suspicious transactions between Patimas and its top debtors, the SC said.

The matter was raised and discussed by Ernst & Young (EY) Malaysia, Patimas’ external auditor, during a meeting with the company’s management.

Subsequently, on July 31, 2012 Patimas announced to Bursa Malaysia that it would not be able to issue the annual audited financial statements by July 31, 2012 for the financial period from Jan 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 "due to unresolved significant audit findings/queries,” according to the SC statement. - BERNAMA