$280k fine for buying shares to boost price
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A COMPANY, Permasteelisa Pacific Holdings (PPH), wanted to issue new shares at 40 cents each to pay for the acquisition of another firm.
But to prevent then-listed PPH's share price from dipping below 40 cents, its chief financial officer Franco Giuseppe was allegedly instructed by his bosses to buy PPH shares on 40 occasions between March and August 2004.
He bought more than 1.35 million shares using the accounts of associated companies. It is understood that if PPH's share price had fallen below 40 cents, the company would have had to issue more shares for the purchase.
Yesterday, the Italian national was fined $40,000 each on three counts of insider trading, and fined an additional $80,000 each on two counts of market rigging. A total of 15 similar charges were taken into consideration by District Judge Kessler Soh when passing sentence.
Giuseppe, 45, who is a permanent resident, had pleaded guilty in February. Asking the court to impose only a fine, defence counsel Shashi Nathan of Inca Law pointed out that his client did not make a cent from the transactions, and that Giuseppe merely did as he was told by his bosses.
But the lawyer did admit that this was no excuse, as the former CFO should have known better.
-- ST
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Highly educated yet act like a slave. I dun think so. SHould confiscate his property and money. Den kick him out of Singapore. DUn let him set his foot on our shores again.
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Another FT that con Lesser Mortals in our SGX.
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what did his bosses get for punishment?