According to the findings after a referral from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and SEC’s further investigation, the offenders were divided into two groups, with details as follows:  

            Group 1: Chanyarat, as a director of Suan Orapin (Thailand) Co., Ltd., a lessee of a property of UOB8TF with the right to offer a bidding price for the property in competition with other bidders, knew in advance that UOB Asset Management (Thailand) Co., Ltd. would sell the assets of UOB8TF to C S M Capital Partners Co., Ltd. The sale would cause UOB8TF to be dissolved and the money to be averaged out and paid to the unitholders at a price higher than the market price at the time. Chanyarat used the information above to buy UOB8TF units into her securities account during 20 August 2015 – 11 December 2015 at 8.50 - 8.90 baht per unit. After the property fund was dissolved, the unitholders received an average return of 10.69 baht per unit.    

            Group 2: Eakarat, the foreign fund manager of UOB, knew in advance that UOB was preparing for the sale of the UOB8TF assets and prohibiting all employees from trading units of the fund. Taking advantage of the said fact, he used the securities trading accounts of Usuma and Thitirat to buy the UOB8TF units during 19 February 2016 – 4 March 2016 at 8.84 - 8.94 baht per unit. Usuma and Thitirat rendered assistance to his commission of the offense.    

The purchases of UOB8TF units in both cases were done before the inside information was publicly disclosed through SET on 7 March 2016, and the sales thereof generated profits or averaged out return to the unitholders after the inside information was disclosed.

Chanyarat’s and Eakarat’s acts were liable to be the offenses under Section 241 and subject to the penalties under Section 296 of the Securities and Exchange Act B.E. 2535 (1992), which was in force at the time of their offenses. Currently, such acts are still the offenses under Section 242 and subject to the penalties under Section 296 and Section 296/2 of the Securities and Exchange Act (No. 5) B.E. 2559 (2016). In the case of Usuma and Thitirat, their acts are liable to be the offenses under the aforesaid Sections in conjunction with Section 86 of the Criminal Code.  

The Civil Sanction Committee has resolved to instruct SEC to impose civil sanction whereby Chanyarat and Eakarat must pay a separate civil penalty and compensate for the benefits received from committing the offenses, at the amounts of 1,712,174 baht and 558,405 baht, respectively. Usuma and Thitirat must pay an equal civil penalty of 333,333.33 baht. If any of the offenders refuses to comply with the civil sanction imposed by the Civil Sanction Committee, SEC will submit the case for the public attorney to file a lawsuit with the Civil Court to impose a compensation of the benefits received from the offenses and the highest civil penalty as allowed by law.  

Due to the civil sanction imposed by the Civil Sanction Committee, the four offenders are liable to have untrustworthy characteristics of director and executive of securities issuing companies and listed companies.* SEC will take this matter into consideration when such persons take the position of director and executive of issuing companies and listed companies. In addition, the offense of Eakarat, who was personnel in the capital market business at the time, caused him to be a person with prohibited characteristics of personnel in the capital market business. Further proceedings in his case will be considered in due course.**

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Notes:

* Pursuant to the Notification of the Securities and Exchange Commission No. Kor Jor. 3/2560 Re: Determination of Untrustworthy Characteristics of Company Director and Executive dated 23 January 2017. 

** Pursuant to the Notification of the Capital Market Supervisory Board No. Tor Lor Thor. 8/2557 Re: Rules on Personnel in the Capital Market Business dated 3 June 2014.