Former deputy chairman of Patimas Computers found liable for insider trading

KUCHING: The High Court 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 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 a total of 43,823,600 Patimas shares held by Law Siew Ngoh, 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 matter was raised and discussed by Ernst & Young (EY) Malaysia, Patimas’ external auditor, during a meeting with the company’s management.

The board of directors of Patimas subsequently on July 31, 2012 announced to Bursa Malaysia that Patimas would not be able to issue the annual audited financial statements by July 31, 2012 for the financial period from January 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 due to unresolved significant audit findings/queries.

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 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.