3 "big Players" Suspected Of Share Manipulations

3 "big players" suspected of leading share manipulation: AMLO

BANGKOK: -- Three “key players” have been found leading groups of individual and juristic persons suspected of having involved in share manipulation on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, according to the Anti-Money Laundering Office.

Pol Maj Gen Peeraphan Premputhi, the AMLO’s Secretary-General, said the Securities and Exchange Commission had asked AMLO to examine the financial transactions and sources of one major share trader on the stock market.

He said AMLO had examined the case and found there are three core players leading groups of 10-15 individual persons and 10-20 juristic persons whose financial sources are linked.

The trio would play a key role in providing margin accounts to the groups so that they could bring the money to purchase stocks of one listed firm and then push up its prices to the level that attracts small investors.

He stated the groups would accumulate the stocks in a bid to manipulate the prices. But the accumulation would not exceed 5% of the total shares available in the market in order to avoid reporting the share transaction to SEC.

Once the stock prices increased to a certain level, they would dump the shares to gain profits from the difference. The dumping would make small investors unable to sell off the shares in time. Eventually, they need to hold the shares at very high prices.

He said such manipulation resulted in the fortune gains of hundreds of million baht.

“We will give our information on the examination of financial sources through the computer system to SEC so that it can use it for the final decision on whether such behavior is considered the share manipulation.

“Should the share manipulation be found and persons involved be executives of companies, they will be subject to a 5-10 year sentence in prison and a fine of 500,000 baht or both under the Securities Act B.E. 2535. As well, SEC is authorized to freeze their assets for 180 days,” he said.

--TNA 2005-06-17