SEC To Announce Harsher Insider Trading Penalties

Listed company executives found guilty of unfair securities trading practices can expect to receive heavier penalties, as part of revised punishments expected to be announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) later this month as reported in the Bangkok Post.  According to the article, guilty executives may face “blacklisting” as one of the additional penalties, although details of what such blacklisting would entail have not been spelled out (for example, whether such executives would be barred temporarily or permanently from trading in securities or prohibited from working in an executive capacity for a listed company).

The SEC’s motivation behind the move to increase penalties follows a recent insider trading scandal involving executives from CP All Plc and True Corporation Plc who were alleged to have used insider knowledge to buy shares of cash-and-carry giant Siam Makro Plc prior to CP All’s bid for the Siam Makro at an above-market price (the SEC settled with the executives and others charged with aiding and abetting them late last year for approximately 33 million THB as reported by the SEC here).

For more information about securities law in general please see our knowledge section here.  Watch this space for further developments.