MAS takes Civil Penalty Enforcement Action against Phua Lay Leng for Insider Trading

[pianist]

I wonder how did mas manage to find out?

Singapore, 18 November 2013… The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has taken civil penalty enforcement action against Ms Phua Lay Leng for insider trading under Section 218(2)(a) of the Securities & Futures Act (SFA).

2 Roxy-Pacific Holdings Limited (Roxy-Pacific), a company listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd (SGX-ST), made an announcement on 5 April 2012 of its intention to undertake a bonus issue of up to 318,280,000 ordinary shares, on the basis of one bonus share for every two existing ordinary shares held by the shareholders of the company on the books closure date.

3 Prior to the announcement on 5 April 2012, Ms Phua, a senior administrative executive at Roxy-Pacific and being aware of the board resolution approving the bonus issue, purchased 30,000 shares in Roxy-Pacific while she was in possession of non-public and price-sensitive information concerning the bonus issue.

4 Ms Phua has admitted to contravening Section 218(2)(a) of the SFA and has paid MAS a civil penalty of $50,000, without any court action. Ms Phua cooperated fully with MAS in the course of the investigation.

5 The matter was referred to MAS by SGX-ST.

[opmi]

SGX found out.

Firstly, there must be a jump in price and volume.

Next, see if the person is an employee or service provider of the company.

Likely the first cross reference is to see if the person bought the same shares over past 12 months.
If sudden interest, probably will trigger further investigation.

My guess only.

[corydorus]

Seems like a small fry. It will be more meaningful if they can catch Big Fish at Fund size.

[Stocker]

Expected , nothing new.

[hurricane]

For everyone who is caught, I wonder how many go scot free every day? Especially if your trading isn't that large as to attract attention and you split up your trading by making use of numerous relatives' accounts etc.

[yeokiwi]

We always see increases in trade volume and price before the announcement of good news. So, I suppose these kind of insider trades should be happening quite often.

If the person uses nominee account, can SGX track it?
Even better, if the person uses an overseas nominee account, I doubt they can trace it.

Does the banks/brokerages that buy/sell on behalf of clients using nominee accounts submit information of the daily trades to SGX?

[opmi]

CDP nominees subaccount has beneficiary name on it. I dont think CDP has
omnibus account anymore. After Barings and money laundering tightening.

When u talking about nominees, you are referring to using others people account.
Those will get busted too.

If you trade a lot and in similar counters, hard for anyone to have a good case. Unless you
and immediate family working for the company. Proof of insider trading not easy.

It is those accounts, that dont trade, then suddenly 'show hand' on 1 counter. Those are the red flags.

Guessing only.

[camelking]

Seems like a small fry. It will be more meaningful if they can catch Big Fish at Fund size.

Big Fish??

They are at country clubs all over Singapore.

[Patrick Lim]

It's an expensive lesson for her.Not sure whether $50k is the minimum or standard penalty.It should be a warning to those who act on "tips" as unwittingly they may also be receiving information not available to the general public

[opmi]

There are 2 routes to persecuting insider trading: civil or criminal.

Criminal suit is harder to prove so authorities usually go for civil penalty. Fine is minimum $50k or 3X illegal profits.

http://www.mas.gov.sg/News-and-Publicati...ading.aspx