The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed a civil penalty of $100,000 and four-year prohibition orders (POs) against Chua Kah Boey for false and unauthorised trading.
The civil penalty was paid without court action while the POs took effect on Aug 18.
Chua, who was formerly a trading representative under UOB Kay Hian, was charged for committing false trading and unauthorised trading.
Between Feb 15, 2016 and Oct 25, 2016, Chua, who managed the UOB Kay Hian accounts belonging to Wong Leon Keat and three other individuals, executed Wong’s trading instructions through one of the other individuals’ UOB Kay Hian accounts. The trading had inflated the closing price of shares in Gaylin Holdings by between 6.5% and 38.6% at the time.
Wong himself has been convicted for seven charges of false trading and one instance for deceiving UOB Kay Hian. He was sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment for false trading and fined $30,000 for unauthorised trading on March 12, 2021. His appeal against custodial sentence was dismissed on Dec 2, 2021. His remaining offences have been taken into consideration.
Further to MAS’s statement, Chua had also executed Wong’s trading instructions through the UOB Kay Hian trading accounts of two other individuals, without notifying and seeking the brokerage’s authorisation of these arrangements.
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“This was likely to deceive UOB Kay Hian into believing that the trades executed through these accounts had been instructed by the respective account holders,” reads the statement released by MAS on Aug 18.