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SEC initiates civil sanctions on three offenders for insider trading of ICHI shares



Thursday 22 October 2020 | No. 202 / 2020


Bangkok, 22 October 2020 – SEC announces an action to impose civil sanction on three offenders, namely (1) Mr. Apichart Sukjirawat for selling Ichitan Group Public Company Limited (ICHI) shares while in possession of material, non-public information (inside information), (2) Mrs. Eng Passakornnatee for disclosing inside information regarding ICHI to another person and aiding or abetting that person in selling ICHI shares, and (3) Ms. Supanee Sukapantawon for selling ICHI shares while in possession of inside information. All three offenders are required to pay civil monetary penalty and disgorge of the ill-gotten benefits received from the offenses, as well as reimburse the SEC’s investigation expenses, at the total amount of 33,173,237.48 baht. In addition, all offenders will be prohibited from holding the positions of director or executive in any publicly traded company or any securities company for a specified period.

According to referral from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and SEC’s further investigation, it was found that during January - February 2017 Apichart Sukjirawat, Assistant Managing Director in charge of Accounting and Finance of ICHI, knew the inside information related to ICHI's financial statement year 2016, which would show a decline in the net earnings resulting from net operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2016. Apichart then sold 3,529,800 ICHI shares in his account during 10 - 20 January 2017 before ICHI reported its financial statements for the year 2016 to SET on 23 February 2017 to avoid loss.


Eng Passakornnatee, Deputy Chief Executive Officer,  Executive Vice President, and Director of ICHI, knew the inside information related to ICHI’s financial statement year 2016, which would show a decline in the net earnings. Eng disclosed such inside information to Supanee Sukapantawon, her sister. Eng also aided and abetted Supanee in selling 10,263,300 ICHI shares during 23 January - 23 February 2017 before the financial statement year 2016 of ICHI was submitted to SET which helped Supanee to benefit from loss avoided.  

 

The action of the offenders contravened the Securities and Exchange Act B.E. 2535 (1992), as amended (SEA), as follows: Apichart’s acts violated Section 242 (1), Eng’s acts violated Sections 242 (2) and 315, and Supanee’s acts violated Section 242 (1) in conjunction with Section 244 (4). All three are liable to the penalties under Sections 296 and 296/2 of the SEA.  

The Civil Sanction Committee has resolved to authorize SEC to initiate civil sanction proceedings against Apichart, Eng and Supanee requiring each offender to  pay civil monetary penalty, disgorge the benefits of loss avoided from committing the offenses, and reimburse the SEC’s investigation expenses, at the amounts of 7,801,494.66 baht, 1,105,225.66 baht and 24,266,517.16 baht, respectively. In addition, Apichart, Eng and Supanee would be prohibited from holding the positions of director or executive at any publicly traded company and any securities company for 12 months each. 


The banning period shall begin from the date each offender signs the letter of consent to comply with the civil sanction. However, if any offender declines to comply with the civil sanctions ruled by the Civil Sanction Committee, SEC will seek an assistance from Public Attorney to file a civil lawsuit with the Court and petition the Court to enter a judgement against that offender for maximum civil sanctions, as prescribed by the SEA.  

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