Court sets Nov 22 to hear Sreesanthan’s application

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Sessions Court here set Nov 22 to hear an application by corporate lawyer Datuk E.Sreesanthan, who is charged with seven counts of insider trading, to drop all the charges made against him by the Securities Commission (SC).

Judge Datuk Rozana Ali Yusof set the date after lead counsel Datuk Cyrus Das informed the court yesterday that the defence had filed the application at the Sessions Court criminal registry here on Wednesday.

Among others, Sreesanthan, 52, is seeking the court to issue a summons to SC and its officers to produce all the documents and statements recorded in the course of the investigation against him.

He also wants the SC to produce and deliver all documents or any form of evidence that the prosecution intends to use in the trial.

Das said his client is also seeking an order to refer various questions of law on constitutional issues at the High Court.

On July 20, Sreesanthan, a former independent non-executive director of Sime Darby Bhd, claimed trial to seven counts of insider trading, involving 625,000 shares in Sime Darby Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd, UEM World Bhd and VADS Bhd.

He allegedly used the information on the acquisition, privatisation and corporate restructuring exercises of the said companies at his disposal between 2006 and 2008 to acquire the shares. On the first three charges, Sreesanthan is alleged to have acquired 75,000 units of Sime Darby Bhd shares, ahead of the special purpose vehicle Synergy Drive Sdn Bhd’s acquisition of nine companies within its group, which included Sime Engineering Services Bhd, Golden Hope Plantations Bhd and Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd.

The next two charges involved the acquisition of 200,000 units of UEM World Bhd shares and 100,000 units of VADS Berhad shares while in possession of insider information on UEM Group’s corporate restructuring and proposed privatisation of VADS Bhd, respectively.

The last two counts concerned 250,000 Maxis Communications Bhd shares which were allegedly acquired ahead of the company’s privatisation of Binariang GSM Sdn Bhd’s proposed conditional take-over of all voting shares in Maxis.

All the offences were allegedly committed at Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd in Bukit Kewangan here between Oct 9, 2006 and Sept 18, 2008.

Sreesanthan faces a minimum fine of RM1 million and up to 10 years in prison for each offence under the Securities Industry Act 1983 and Capital Markets and Services Act 2007, upon conviction. At today’s proceeding, the Securities Commission was represented by two prosecuting officers, Aimi Khalidah and Nor Rifhan Raimi Rozi. — Bernama