21-05-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Apex court dismisses ex-Patimas deputy chairman's bid to appeal
Raymond Yap had sought to challenge the Court of Appeal's unanimous decision on Nov 27, 2024 upholding the High Court's finding that he was liable for insider trading of Patimas shares in 2012.
PETALING JAYA : The Federal Court today unanimously dismissed an application by former Patimas Computers Bhd deputy chairman Raymond Yap for leave to appeal against his liability for an insider trading offence committed in 2012.
A three-member bench, led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, together with Federal Court judges Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Lee Swee Seng, affirmed the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal and High Court.
The court ordered him to pay RM30,000 in costs to the Securities Commission (SC).
Yap had sought to challenge the Court of Appeal's unanimous decision on Nov 27, 2024 upholding the High Court's finding that he was liable for insider trading of Patimas shares in 2012.
The SC, which initiated the civil suit in 2020, alleged that Yap had breached Sections 188(2)(a) and (b) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 by disposing of 43.8 million Patimas shares held by former managing director Law Siew Ngoh between June and July 2012.
SC claimed that at the time, Yap was in possession of material, non-public information related to audit queries and issues regarding suspicious transactions between Patimas and its top debtors.
'The matter had been raised and discussed by Patimas's external auditor during a meeting with the company's management,' the commission said in a statement.
On July 31, 2012, Patimas's board of directors announced to Bursa Malaysia that the company would not be able to issue its annual audited financial statements for the financial period from Jan 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 due to unresolved significant audit findings/queries.
The SC said following a full trial at the High Court, Yap was ordered to pay the commission a disgorgement of RM3.28 million, equal to three times the losses avoided by Yap as a result of the breach, and a civil penalty of RM1 million.
Yap was also prohibited from being appointed as a director in any public-listed company for a period of five years, with effect from the date of the High Court judgment on April 7, 2022.
