KUALA LUMPUR (May 21): The Federal Court has dismissed former Patimas Computers Bhd deputy chairman Datuk Raymond Yap Wee Hin’s application for leave to appeal against his conviction for insider trading, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) said on Wednesday.
The unanimous decision by the court, comprising Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Federal Court judges Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Datuk Lee Swee Seng, effectively marks the end of Yap’s legal challenge against the SC's civil action filed in 2020.
Yap was also ordered to pay costs of RM30,000 to the SC, the commission said in a statement.
In November 2024, the Court of Appeal had affirmed the High Court’s finding that Yap was liable for insider trading offences committed in 2012 involving 43.8 million Patimas shares.
The shares were held by Law Siew Ngoh, the company’s former managing director, and disposed of while Yap was in possession of material, non-public information concerning audit issues and suspicious transactions between Patimas and its top debtors. These matters, according to SC, had been raised by the company’s external auditors during internal discussions.
The High Court, in its April 2022 decision, ordered Yap to pay RM3.28 million in disgorgement — equivalent to three times the losses he avoided — and a RM1 million civil penalty, the maximum allowable under the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007.
Yap was also barred from serving as a director of any listed company for five years, starting from the date of the judgment on April 7, 2022.