KUALA LUMPUR: The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has reprimanded and fined Amran Mohd Amin RM687,500 for three breaches of securities laws.
According to the SC, Amran misappropriated RM215,000 from four prospective investors between January 2022 and January 2023.
The funds were intended for investment in a unit trust fund managed by Kenanga Investors Bhd (KIB).
"The SC found that Amran had instead utilised the potential investors’ funds by depositing them into his own unit trust investment account,” it said in a statement today.
Additionally, Amran provided falsified account statements to two of the four investors, misleading them into believing their investments had been made when no such transactions occurred.
At the time, Amran was a unit trust consultant at KIB and committed breaches that warranted administrative sanctions under Section 354(3) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA).
The sanctions pertain to Section 92A(2)(a) of the CMSA, Paragraph 5.02(b) of the SC’s Guidelines on Conduct for Capital Market Intermediaries, and Paragraph 4.1(a) of the Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia’s Code of Ethics.
The SC's decision took effect on June 26, 2024.
The SC's findings were reached after due process, including allowing Amran to respond to the allegations and the SC’s decision.
"Amran has not filed any review against the SC’s decision within the prescribed time provided under the CMSA,” it said.
This action against Amran is part of the SC's ongoing enforcement efforts targeting unit trust consultants (UTCs) for misconduct.
Since 2020, the SC has taken administrative actions against nine UTCs for similar violations, including accepting cash or having money credited to personal accounts for investment purposes and providing clients with false or misleading statements.
The SC reminds all UTCs to uphold honesty, integrity and the best interests of their clients to maintain the capital market's integrity. - Bernama
