PUTRAJAYA (Sept 25): The Federal Court has fixed Oct 11 to hear the merits of lawyer Datuk Sreesanthan Eliathamby’s appeal against a RM1 million civil penalty imposed on him for insider trading.
A decision in Sreesanthan’s case would have an impact on other ongoing civil penalties imposed by the courts and also the question on whether the Attorney General’s approval is needed by the Securities Commission Malaysia to initiate proceedings against a purported offender.
Sreesanthan’s counsel Abraham Au confirmed the date when contacted by The Edge following case management before the apex court deputy registrar Mahyun Ismail.
In April, a three-member Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat granted leave to Sreesanthan to have the merits of his appeal heard.
In civil cases at the apex court, leave, or permission, had to be obtained first before the full merits are heard.
Sreesanthan’s appeal comes after the Court of Appeal affirmed on Sept 6, 2022 an earlier decision by the High Court that ordered him to pay the Securities Commission RM1.99 million, which is three times the profits gained from the insider trading.
He was also slapped with a civil penalty of RM1 million and barred from being a director of any listed company for 10 years, starting from Nov 18, 2020.
Sreesanthan had acquired a total of 600,000 Worldwide Holdings Bhd shares between June 7 and 11, 2006 while in possession of material non-public information on the company’s proposed privatisation by Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor.
At that time, Sreesanthan was a senior partner in a law firm which was engaged to act as the legal adviser of the proposed privatisation of Worldwide.
Last month, former Malaysian Merchant Marine Bhd executive deputy chairman Datuk Ramesh Rajaratnam had sought and was granted an adjournment of his criminal appeal for insider trading pending the outcome of Sreesanthan’s case.