PETALING JAYA, The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court ruling requiring former Patimas Computers Bhd executive director Ng Back Heang to pay RM1.24 million to the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) for insider trading.
According to Bernama, the SC said a three-judge panel—Justices P Ravinthran, Choo Kah Sing and Nadzarin Wok Nordin—unanimously dismissed Ng’s appeal and ordered him to pay RM30,000 in costs.
In 2022, the High Court found Ng liable under Section 188(2)(a) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA). The judgment required him to pay RM1.24 million to the SC, equivalent to three times the losses avoided through insider trading.
Ng was also ordered to pay a civil penalty of RM700,000 and barred from serving as a director of any listed company for five years, effective from Nov 17, 2022. The High Court further awarded RM100,000 in costs to the SC.
The offence stemmed from Ng’s disposal of 16.5 million Patimas shares between May and July 2012 while in possession of material non-public information. The information related to audit queries and suspicious transactions between Patimas and its major debtors, raised by the company’s external auditor.
On July 31, 2012, Patimas’ board announced to Bursa Malaysia that it was unable to release its audited financial statements for the period Jan 1, 2011, to March 31, 2012, due to unresolved audit issues.
The SC said the case was prosecuted by deputy public prosecutors Hafiz Yusoff, Mageswary Karroppiah, and Eunice Ong, while Ng was represented by lawyer Jasbeer Singh.
This decision comes just months after the Federal Court dismissed an appeal attempt by another former Patimas executive, ex-deputy chairman Raymond Yap, over a similar insider trading offence committed in 2012.
In May, the apex court ruled that Yap failed to meet the legal threshold under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 to obtain leave for appeal. This followed the Court of Appeal’s decision in November 2024 affirming the High Court’s finding that Yap was also liable for insider trading of Patimas shares.
The SC, which initiated the civil suit in 2020, alleged that Yap had breached Sections 188(2)(a) and (b) of the CMSA by disposing of 43.8 million Patimas shares belonging to former managing director Law Siew Ngoh between June and July 2012, while in possession of material non-public information about audit queries and questionable transactions involving the company’s top debtors.
