KUALA LUMPUR (May 20): The High Court today set aside the conviction of former Malaysian Merchant Bhd (MMM) deputy chairman Datuk Ramesh Rajaratnam for purported insider trading of the company’s shares 11 years ago, along with the five-year jail sentence and RM9 million fine imposed on him.
This follows Judicial Commissioner Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid acquitting Ramesh on all three counts of insider trading pursuant to Section 188(2)(a) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA).
Azhar found that the conviction was not safe and accepted the submissions raised by Ramesh's defence team.
He was represented by Datuk Professor Gurdial Singh Nijar, Joshua Andran, Abraham Au and Paul Ais. Gurdial and Andran confirmed the decision to theedgemarkets.com.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Hashley Tajudin, Munira Masood and Daniel Ariff appeared for the Securities Commission Malaysia.
On Sept 11, 2019, the Sessions Court here convicted Ramesh on all three counts of insider trading in relation to the disposal of 10.2 million MMM shares in 2010.
He was accused of being in possession of insider information on a proposed downgrade by the Malaysian Rating Corporation Bhd (MARC) on the credit rating of MMM’s Al-Bai Bithaman Ajil Islamic Debt Securities, which was made public by MARC on Feb 4, 2010.
He was alleged to have disposed of the MMM shares between Jan 11 and Feb 22 in 2010.
For this, Ramesh, 57, was sentenced to five years in jail and fined RM9 million.
Insider trading is an offence under section 188(2)(a) of the CMSA and carries a punishment of an imprisonment term not exceeding 10 years and a fine of not less than RM1 million.