Singapore convicted three front-runners of 333 counts of insider trading—the first charge of its sort ever in the city-state.
Leong Chee Wai, E Seck Peng Simon and Toh Chew Leong convicted and sentenced to 36, 30 and 20 months of imprisonment, respectively, according to a release from local regulator, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
333 counts of insider trading offences were charged during a 7-year period that resulted in profits of $6 million. The State Court of Singapore had ordered a total of $1.8 million to be forfeited to the government and the amount had been seized by the MAS during investigations.
Front running own portfolio managers
Profits were made by front-running portfolio managers from First State Investments while Leong and Toh were senior equity dealers responsible for executing trades. Tipped by intended orders from First State portfolio managers, which have the size to impact market prices, the two colluded to trade based on insider information starting March 2007.
Toh, also working at First State's dealing desks, joined this arrangement starting August 2008 and subsequently also introduced margin-based contracts to boost gains.
