The Civil Sanction Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed a civil sanction on Siam Sport Syndicate Plc's director for using insider information to purchase the company's shares.
Ravi Lohtong, director and executive of Siam Sport Syndicate, is subject to a civil penalty of 500,000 baht, while being banned from holding the position of director or executive at any issuing or listed companies for one year, the SEC said in a release.
"Following a referral from the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the SEC conducted a further investigation and found Mr Ravi had taken advantage of information about Siam Sport Syndicate's operating results for the third quarter of 2015," the SEC said.
"The information became known to him by virtue of his position as the company's director and chief adviser to the executive board before it was disclosed to the public."
The third-quarter operating results showed net earnings of 14.25 million baht, a significant increase compared with continuous losses registered in previous quarters.
Mr Ravi used such inside information to purchase 1,479,700 shares of Siam Sport Syndicate through a trading account of Lohtong Holding Co Ltd before the company publicly disclosed the quarterly result in November 2015, the SEC said.
Mr Ravi's misconduct was deemed a securities purchase based on a non-disclosed, material fact that could influence the securities price to gain an unfair benefit over other persons. He was deemed liable for offences under Section 241 of the SEC Act 1992, along with civil sanctions under the SEC Act 2016.
Mr Ravi agreed to the civil sanction imposed and paid the civil penalty, the SEC said. The money will be submitted to the Finance Ministry as public revenue.
