Ex-investment banker jailed, fined RM1m for insider trading

KUALA LUMPUR:  Former investment banker Goh Keng Huat was jailed six months and fined RM1mil in default six months imprisonment after he was convicted to insider trading in the shares of Road Builder Holdings Bhd (RBH) in 2006.

The Securities Commission said on Tuesday the sentence was handed down by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court after Goh, 48, earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of insider trading under section 89E(2) of the Securities Industry Act 1983. 

According to the charge, Goh had acquired 100,000 units of RBH shares while in possession of inside information on Sept 4, 2006. 

The SC said Goh was at the material time the head of equity markets of Aseambankers Malaysia Bhd (now known as Maybank Investment Bank Bhd).
 
Goh, who currently resides in Australia, was sentenced by Sessions Court Judge Datuk Habibah Mohamed Yusof to six months imprisonment and a fine of RM1mil, in default six months imprisonment, following a plea bargaining application under the provision of section 172C of the Criminal Procedure Code. 

The court also took into consideration nine other similar charges against Goh for his purchase of 751,600 RBH shares between Sept 5, 2006 and Oct 16, 2006. 

On Oct 10, 2017, the SC charged Goh with 10 counts of insider trading and his wife, Wee Siew Ling, with 10 counts of abetting Goh in the commission of the offences by allowing him to acquire the RBH shares through her trading accounts. 

Following the plea of guilt by Goh, the charges against Wee were withdrawn by the SC. 

The inside information referred to in all the charges related to the proposed take-over of RBH by IJM Corporation Bhd at a total indicative purchase consideration of about RM1.56bil which was announced to Bursa Malaysia on Oct 18, 2006. 

According to the facts of the case which were read out in court, Aseambankers was one of the joint advisors to the take-over offer and Goh had the inside information as he was at that time actively working on the corporate exercise.