Worth reading the Straits Times article on this. Essentially, he borrowed money from the bank by pledging his shares and when the share price tanked in 2008, he tried supporting the share price by buying his own shares from the market. Otherwise, he would have faced margin calls. By doing so, he created a false market in the shares.
business.asiaone.com/news/singapore-company-director-fined-150000-mas(In case anyone is wondering, regulatory announcements are public documents and one can copy and paste as appropriate. However, articles written by others are copyrighted and links should be used instead).
-------------------REGULATORY ACTIONS BY SGX AND OTHER AUTHORITIES - UPDATES
_________________________________________________________________________________
The Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Natural Cool Holdings Limited (the “Company” and together
with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) refers to the announcement made by the Company on 18 April 2013
(the “Announcement dated 18 April 2013”) regarding the investigation conducted by the Monetary
Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) against Mr Ang Choon Cheng (“Mr Ang”), the Chief Executive Officer
(“CEO”) of the Company pursuant to Division 3 of Par IX of the Securities and Futures Act (Chapter
289) (“SFA”).
On 31 October 2013, Mr Ang voluntarily entered into a civil penalty agreement with MAS in
connection with certain trades carried out by him in the shares in the Company during the period
between 9 January 2008 to 16 June 2009, against Section 197(1)(b) and 201(b) of the SFA. Under
the terms of the civil penalty agreement, Mr Ang has paid a civil penalty of $150,000 to MAS without
court action, comprising a civil penalty of $90,000 for contravening Section 197(1)(b) of the SFA and
$60,000 for contravening Section 201(b) of the SFA. Mr Ang has resigned as a director and CEO of
the Company on 31 October 2013. Mr Ang has also given a voluntary undertaking to MAS not to be a
company director for a period of one year with effect from 31 October 2013.
Full details available here:
infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/NatCool_SGXNetAnnt_JA_TJP_Advisor_31Oct2013.ashx?App=Announcement&FileID=262091