SC sues seven individuals for manipulation of APLI shares

PETALING JAYA: Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has sued seven individuals at the Kuala Lumpur High Court for the manipulation of shares in APL Industries Bhd (APLI) and is seeking court orders for disgorgement and civil penalty of up to RM7 million and a capital market ban on the defendants.

The SC, in a statement yesterday, alleged that Ng Wai Hong, a dealer’s representative at Hwang-DBS Securities Bhd, and six others who were acquainted or connected to her, had actively transacted large volumes of APLI shares between Nov 7 and 9, 2006, causing a surge in the volume and price of APLI, which was delisted in 2009.

According to the statement of claim, which was filed by the SC on Sept 21, 2017, Ng was responsible for planning and carrying out the alleged trading of APLI shares on behalf of the rest of the defendants, who had in turn allowed their accounts to be used for the said manipulative activity. The trades carried out by Ng in the accounts of the other six defendants represented 30.36% of the total volume of APLI shares traded on the market.

The other six defendants are Lo Ga Lung, Toh Pik Chai, Ling Pik Ngieh, Ng Soo Tian, Chan Kok and Chai Shou Wei.

The SC claims the defendants’ actions had created a false or misleading appearance of active trading with respect to the market for APLI shares as well as having the effect of maintaining the price of them, which were in breach of Section 84 and Section 85 of the Securities Industry Act 1983 respectively.

The disgorgement of all profits obtained by the defendants as a result of the manipulation will be used to compensate affected investors.

The SC is claiming a civil penalty of RM1 million from each of the seven defendants and orders to bar the defendants from being a director of a public listed company and from trading on the stock exchange for five years.