A gaping loophole for the rich

I share Songdej Praditsmanont’s dismay over the damage done to the reputation of Thai capital markets by the insider-trading scandal involving such a high profile company as CP All. 
However, as for Songdej’s suggestion that the Securities and Exchange Commission should have made resignation for guilty board members a condition of the light fines imposed is logical, I don’t believe this was an option for the SEC.
In fact, the precise nature of the penalties is a decision for the Settlement Committee, which is not a formal part of the SEC. Under the SEC Act, the Settlement Committee comprises “three persons appointed by the finance minister, one of whom is an investigating officer under the Criminal Procedure Code”. My understanding is that the committee does not have the power to impose conditions on the fines it levies.
The real issues here are the lack of potency of the SEC Act to deal with insider traders, and the SEC’s reliance on police and prosecutors to bring criminal charges. The SEC is obligated to refer for criminal prosecution only those cases deemed to have a negative impact on society as a whole.
From the public reaction we have seen, it is hard to justify the SEC decision that the case in question had no negative impact on society. However, the main problem is that the SEC has no independent powers of prosecution and would rather see offenders punished lightly than not at all, knowing the latter is a likely result once police and prosecutors get involved in high-profile financial cases. 
The SEC needs to be given independent powers of prosecution and the maximum penalties for insider trading need to be raised substantially from the current two years in prison and/or a fine equivalent to two times the profit gained (or loss avoided).
By international standards these penalties are laughable but, under the current legislative framework, the fact is that the risk to insider traders of ever serving jail time or having to pay even the maximum fine is virtually nil. Until the law is changed, the rewards of insider trading in Thailand will continue to outweigh the risks by a substantial margin, and no amount of outrage will change this.
George Morgan