KUALA LUMPUR: Chan Soon Huat, a founder and former director of WCT Bhd, was found guilty of insider trading of the company’s shares.
The Securities Commission (SC) said the High Court had today found an insider trading case against Chan.
In the suit that was filed in 2015, the SC claimed that Chan had breached section 188(2)(a) of the Capital Markets & Services Act 2007 when he disposed 2.41 million shares and 1.24 million warrants in WCT between December 30 2008 and January 5 2009 while in possession of material non-public information.
The SC said Justice Datuk Abu Bakar Jais had ordered Chan to pay RM3.24 million, three times the loss avoided by the latter as a result of the insider trading.
The High Court also ordered Chan to pay a civil penalty of RM500,000 to the SC.
WCT is a well-known name in construction. It can trace its beginnings to 1981 when two friends and two brothers teamed up to form a company doing earthworks.
They combined the initials of their surnames to form WCT Earthworks and Building Contractors Sdn Bhd; W to stand for the Wong brothers Chew Lai and Sewe Wing, C for Chan Soon Huat and T for Taing Kim Hwa.