SINGAPORE - Tan Chee Keong, former chief financial officer of mainboard-listed Broadway Industrial Group Limited (BIGL), was convicted and sentenced on Friday (June 10) to 3 months and 2 weeks' jail for insider trading and acquiring benefits from criminal conduct.
He was charged for communicating insider information on the company's shares to a friend, and for receiving money from that friend. A third charge, for communicating insider information on BIGL shares to another friend, was taken into consideration during sentencing.
Tan was privy to discussions between BIGL and Platinum Equity Advisors, LLC between March and August 2016 to sell two of its businesses, and disclosed the information to the two friends, knowing that they would likely buy BIGL shares. The two individuals subsequently profitted from the purchase and sale of BIGL shares, with Tan receiving $30,000 in cash from one of the friends in October 2016 for sharing privileged information.
Investigations against Tan - by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Commercial Affairs Department - arose from a referral by the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.
Mr Tan has since paid $30,000 - his share of the profits - to the state.
MAS' assistant managing director of policy, payments and financial crime Loo Siew Yee said: "As the chief financial officer of a listed company, Mr Tan owed a duty to the company and its shareholders not to divulge price-sensitive information that has not been disclosed to the market at large.
"His act of conveying such information to his friends to benefit them and himself undermines public confidence in the transparency and integrity of our capital market.
"MAS will continue to pursue officers of companies who engage in such misconduct, to ensure a level playing field for all market participants," she added.
The court proceedings against the two individuals alleged to have received insider information from Tan are ongoing.
Correction note: An earlier version of this story had the wrong picture of the offender. The person whose photo was erroneously used has nothing to do with the case. The photo has been removed. We are sorry for the error.
