Trader gets two years for stock price manipulation

They are Focus Development and Construction, Inter Far East Engineering (IFEC) and Royal Ceramic Industry (RCI).

Pailin Kumut was given six months in prison and fined Bt250,000 for conspiring with Sagha in manipulating Focus’ stock, but her jail term was suspended for two years.

The Criminal Court on Wednesday ruled against the two stock manipulators for violating Section 243 (1) and (2) in conjunction with Section 244 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1992.

Sagha, formerly known as Chakchai or Thana Sae Jiem, was convicted on three counts with one-year imprisonment each for trading Focus’ shares from April 24-25, 2008, IFEC shares that April 29, and RCI shares on May 2 in the same year through other persons’ accounts in such a way that manipulated the prices of those shares.

He was also convicted on another count with one-year imprisonment for forging other persons’ signatures to open stock-trading accounts with securities companies. These added up to four years of imprisonment. Since he pleaded guilty, the court halved his term to two years.

Pailin was convicted on one count with one-year imprisonment and a fine of Bt500,000 for conspiring with Sagha to manipulate Focus’ stock. As she pleaded guilty, the court halved her jail term to six months.

The court dismissed charges against Nongluck Sinprasertlert and Adirek Umbangtalad because of lack of evidence. As investor contacts at the Chon Buri branches of Kim Eng Securities (Thailand) and Merchant Partner Securities, respectively, they were named as defendants in the case for aiding and abetting Sagha’s manipulation scheme.

This follows the Securities and Exchange Commission’s criminal complaint filed with the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on December 28, 2010, against Sagha for manipulating Focus-IFEC-RCI stocks as well as Nongluck and Adirek as aiders and abettors who helped arrange trading accounts, send trading orders and facilitate financial transactions related to such manipulative trading.

The DSI and public prosecutors decided to pursue charges against all three persons. Sagha was also charged with forgery and using falsified documents. According to the evidence, he forged other persons’ signatures in the application for opening trading accounts, signature card and agreement for appointing an agent or broker of Fareast Securities Co.

Pailin was named as another defendant as the evidence indicated that she had conspired with Sagha in the Focus manipulation scheme.

The pursuit of this case entailed cooperation among law-enforcement authorities, namely inquiry officers under the Bureau of Financial and Banking Crime of the DSI and public prosecutors under the Department of Special Litigation of the Office of the Attorney-General.