The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has obtained approval from the High Court to begin committal proceedings against Datuk Cheryl Tan Bee Geok for allegedly breaching a five-year court-ordered ban on serving as a director or being involved in the management of listed companies and their subsidiaries.
High Court judge Leong Wai Hong granted the SC’s application on Wednesday, the capital market regulator said in a statement.
Bee Geok is the wife of Supermax Corp Bhd founder Datuk Seri Stanley Thai Kim Sim.
The case dates back to a consent judgement recorded by the High Court on Sept 17, 2020, following civil action by the SC over an insider trading offence involving shares of the former listed company APL Industries Bhd (APLI).
Under the judgement, Bee Geok was prohibited for five years from serving as a director or being involved in the management of any public-listed company or its subsidiaries.
However, the SC alleged that she continued to serve as a director of subsidiaries of a listed company and remained involved in their management, in breach of the court order. The SC did not name the companies involved.
The regulator said it takes breaches of court orders in securities law cases seriously, warning that such conduct could weaken regulatory enforcement and undermine respect for court orders.
The SC first filed an ex-parte application to begin committal proceedings against Bee Geok on Sept 17, 2025. The High Court later directed that the application be heard on an opposed ex-parte basis before granting leave on Wednesday.
Insider Trading Case
Bee Geok and her sister, Tan Bee Hong, were convicted of insider trading offences by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court in 2018.
Both were sentenced to five years in jail and fined RM7 million each over insider trading involving APLI shares.
At the time, Bee Geok was APLI’s group executive director and was responsible for financial matters after Supermax became a substantial shareholder in the company.
The SC said Bee Geok had passed confidential information to her sister regarding audit adjustments proposed by APLI’s auditors.
The adjustments resulted in APLI reporting a larger loss for the financial year ended June 30, 2007 and being classified as a Practice Note 17 (PN17) company.
APLI announced the audit adjustments and its PN17 status to Bursa Malaysia on Oct 31, 2007.
The SC said Bee Hong subsequently sold 350,000 APLI shares from her account on the same day after receiving the non-public information.
On Sept 17, 2020, the High Court recorded a consent judgement between the SC and the two sisters and granted the reliefs sought by the regulator.
APLI was later delisted from Bursa Malaysia in 2009.
