KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 23): The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has won an insider trading civil suit against a former deputy managing director of WCT Bhd and a director of Ara Holdings Sdn Bhd.

In a statement on Friday (Dec 23), the SC said the defendants were ordered by the High Court to pay RM5.83 million to the regulator.

The High Court on Friday found the SC had successfully proven an insider trading case against former WCT deputy managing director Goh Chin Liong and Ara Holdings director Leong Ah Chai, the commission said.  

In the suit filed in 2015, the SC claimed that Goh, 63, and Leong, 62, had breached Sections 188(2) and 188(3) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA) when Goh communicated material non-public information to Leong.  

“The latter (Leong) then disposed of a total of 1,640,000 WCT shares in Ara Holdings’ trading account between Jan 2 and 5, 2009. At the material time, Goh was the deputy managing director of WCT,” said SC.

The material non-public information was in relation to the cancellation of a contract for the proposed construction of the “Nad Al Sheba Dubai Racecourse” in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which was awarded to a joint-venture company set up by WCT and one Arabtec Construction LLC.  

At the time, Leong was a director of Ara Holdings, which was one of the 30 largest shareholders in WCT. Judge Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim ordered Goh and Leong to each pay to the SC a sum of RM2.54 million.

This is equivalent to three times the losses avoided by Ara Holdings through Leong as a result of the insider trading.

The High Court also ordered both defendants to each pay a civil penalty of RM300,000 and awarded costs of RM75,000 each to the SC.