Ex-deputy chairman of Malaysian Merchant Marine charged trading inside

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Merchant Marine Bhd's (MMM) former executive deputy chairman Datuk Ramesh Rajaratnam has been charged by Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) with insider trading.
"Ramesh was charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court with three counts of disposing a total of 10,200,800 MMM shares whilst in possession of non-public information. It was alleged that the disposals of the MMM shares were made on Jan 11, 2010, Feb 19, 2010 and Feb 22, 2010," said SC in a statement yesterday.
The three charges were made under the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007. MMM was previously listed on Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd.
SC said the charges were preferred before Sessions Court Judge Norsharidah Awang and the accused claimed trial to all three charges. Justice Norsharidah fixed bail at RM200,000 and ordered the accused to surrender his international passport to the court.
On the first charge, SC alleged that the non-public information related to the proposed downgrade by Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC) of its credit rating on MMM's RM120 million Al-Bai' Bithaman Ajil Islamic Debt Securities (BaIDS) from the category of investment grade to non-investment grade.
In the second and third charges, the non-public information related to the classification of MMM as a Practice Note 17 company.
The offences carry a punishment of an imprisonment term not exceeding 10 years and a fine of not less than RM1 million.