PETALING JAYA: The Kuala Lumpur High Court today allowed an appeal by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and ordered that the garnishee order nisi against Goh Chin Liong and Leong Ah Chai be made absolute.
“This paves the way for the SC to enforce the recovery of the RM5.83mil judgment sum arising from insider trading breaches by the duo,” said the SC in a statement.
Following a full trial in 2022, the High Court held Goh and Leong liable for insider trading under sections 188(3) and 188(2) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA).
The contravention was in relation to the communication of material non-public information and trading in WCT Bhd shares while in possession of the said information.
“The material non-public information concerned the cancellation of a contract for the proposed construction of the “Nad Al Sheba Dubai Racecourse” in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which was awarded to a joint-venture company set up by WCT and one Arabtec Construction LLC.”
At the time, the SC said Goh was the deputy managing director of WCT.
“The then High Court judge Yang Arif Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim ordered each of them to pay RM2,542,184.70 as disgorgement of losses avoided, civil penalty of RM300,000 and costs of RM75,000 to the SC.
“Both defendants appealed against the decision to the Court of Appeal and applied for a stay of execution of the Judgment Sum pending the appeals.”
The SC said their applications were dismissed by the High Court on Oct 23, 2023, and subsequently by the Court of Appeal on May 14, 2024.
“Despite the dismissal of the stay applications by both courts, the defendants both failed to comply with the SC’s demand for payment of the judgment sum.”
Consequently, on July 21, 2025, the SC commenced garnishee proceedings against the defendants to recover the judgment sum.
“The High Court Registrar (Registrar) granted the garnishee order nisi on Aug 26, 2025. The defendants then applied to set aside the order, which resulted in the garnishee order nisi being set aside by the Registrar on Dec 17, 2025.”
The SC subsequently appealed against the Registrar’s decision to the High Court on Dec 19, 2025.
“High Court judge, Yang Arif Tuan Leong Wai Hong today allowed the SC’s appeal and set aside the Registrar’s decision on Dec 17, 2025, and instead ordered for the garnishee order nisi to be made absolute.
“The High Court also ordered both defendants to each pay costs of RM5,000 to the SC. Following the outcome today, the SC will proceed with next steps to recover the judgment sum.”
The SC said this outcome reaffirms its commitment to the robust enforcement of civil judgments as a key pillar of its regulatory mandate.
“The SC will continue to pursue all available enforcement measures to ensure full payment of judgment sums obtained in civil enforcement actions. “The main appeal has been fixed for hearing at the Court of Appeal on July 9, 2026.”
