Former brokerage firm's officer jailed four years
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The Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a former marketing officer of a brokerage firm to four years in jail following his conviction for spreading false information in cyberspace to manipulate stock prices.
The court cited the confession of Katha Pajariyapong as grounds for leniency in reducing the length of his imprisonment from six years.
In reaching the verdict and in the sentencing, the presiding judge outlined the case, which dates back to 2009.
Public prosecutors brought Katha to trial in 2011 after indicting hi on two counts of violating the Computer Act.
In April and October, 2009, Katha sent out two separate batches of mass emails.
The gist of the emails was the false linkage between the King’s “terminal” illness and the fluctuation in stock prices designed to trigger panic among investors.
In his three statements given to investigators, Katha repeatedly admitted to sending out the emails.
During the trial, he said in his defence that he made the confession under duress. But the defence team cited no evidence of coercion involving investigators.
Furthermore, the defendant had a year to prepare his defence but did not change his confession despite the time lapse between the first and the third statements.
With regard to a defence argument that investigators failed to verify Katha’s involvement with the service provider, the defence was able to summon the provider to testify at trial but chose not to do so.
Although the defence argued that Katha attended seminars coinciding with the dates on the emails, there was no evidence to suggest that he was denied access to computers.
The court found Katha to have spread false information after the defence failed to back up two assertions about terminal illness and about price changes in the stock market.
Reacting to his conviction, Katha said he would seek an appellate review.
