The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has commenced proceedings in the Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT) against a former senior executive of Titan Petrochemicals Group affiliate Augustine Cheong Kai Tjieh and his mother, Gan Ser Soon, for alleged insider dealing in Titan shares which took place in 2012.
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The SFC has alleged that Cheong and Gan knew Titan’s financial position when they sold their Titan shares in January 2012, and in particular that Titan and its Affiliates were likely to default on certain fixed rate senior notes, and on the then outstanding bank loans.
Proceedings
The financial position of Titan at the time and its affiliates’ likely default on its payment Obligations constituted inside information which were material to Titan’s share price.
The SFC is primarily seeking orders for Cheong and Gan to repay losses they avoided totalling around $2.5 million resulting from their disposal of Titan shares.
The SFC also has instituted parallel proceedings in the Court of First Instance under the relevant section of the Securities and Futures Ordinance against Cheong and Gan about their alleged insider dealing in Titan shares.
In these proceedings, the SFC seeks an order to restore relevant counterparties to the position in which they were before they had bought shares from Cheong and Gan.
In early December 2012, the Court of First Instance granted an interim order upon the SFC’s application to freeze $13.6 million which represented the proceeds of Cheong’s sale of Titan shares in January 2012. The interim order was subsequently discharged after Cheong paid the same amount into court on 24 January 2013.
