The Insiders of Revenue Group Bhd : The Devil is a Sly Old Fox

is a traditional American song by the Chaplin and his entourage , which went by the name The Donald Baker Family.

LAI WEI KIAT, the managing director of Revenue Safe Net Sdn Bhd, who quit yesterday as group executive director, has raised yet another INSIDER TRADING red flag.

CONSIDER this, just six working days, before Revenue Group announced record losses, as well as a dwindling cash pile in the company, LAI WEI KIAT sold two million of the 2.1 million Revenue Group shares in the open market for 49.7 Sen.

THE company's chairman Eddie Ng Chee Siong who earns about RM1 million a year in salary from Revenue Group meanwhile sold 14.82 million shares at below market price just a day before Revenue Group announced READ :  A quarterly revenue of RM4.89 million, with a loss of RM14.77 million as well as RM32 million wiped out from its bank balance

YOU don't have to be Albert Einstein to figure out that both Lai and Eddie Ng Chee Siong , who both hold executive powers in Revenue Group Bhd, were aware that, the company has been eating up RM127,000 daily on the average, for the past 180 days, as well as making huge losses.

READ : What directors of PLCs need to know about insider trading

The devil is a sly old fox, 

If I could catch him 

I would put him in a box,

Lock that box and throw away the key 

For all the mean tricks he's played

THERE are a couple of landmark cases even in Malaysia, that points to both Lai and Eddie crossing the grey area and into the Insider Trading zone. 

READ :SC WINS INSIDER TRADING CIVIL SUIT AGAINST PATIMAS COMPUTERS BERHAD FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

READ : SC wins insider trading civil suit against former WCT deputy MD, Ara Holdings director

BURSA Malaysia defines INSIDER TRADING as READ : Section 188 of CMSA - Insider TradingInsider trading or dealing is the purchase or sale of a company's securities effected by or on behalf of a person with knowledge of relevant but non-public material information regarding the company that may affect the price of the company's securities (price sensitive information) if made public.

UNDER the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA), a breach of the insider trading prohibitions can be visited with either criminal or civil actions. 

CRIMINAL actions for breaches of the law, including the CMSA, as provided under Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution, can only be instituted with the consent of the Public Prosecutor (section 375 of the CMSA). 

READ : Breaches can also mean that directors and chief executives can lose their board positions.

ALL this is being played against a backdrop that all is not well with the market requlator, as reported  in Jan 2022, by the Azmin Ali funded Malaysia Now 

READ: Bribes were given to close an investigation on insider trading against a public-listed company.

THE Securities Commission, must act with a firm hand by pursuing criminal charges, which upon conviction, can lead to ten years in prisonment as well as a hefty fine. 

READ : In 2018, there were criminal prosecutions initiated against several persons who were charged for insider trading under the CMSA as well as several outcomes of criminal prosecution on insider trading. An example would be an individual who was charged under Section 188(2)(a) CMSA for allegedly disposing of 350,000 APL Industries Berhad shares in 2007 while in possession of inside information. She was charged in 2014 and was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment and a RM7 million fine in 2018.

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