Settlement Committee imposes fines on manipulators of SALEE share price

With the referral from the Stock Exchange of Thailand on irregular trading of SALEE shares as a result of a group of persons’ trading causing the changes of SALEE share price and trading volume to be inconsistent with the normal market condition, the SEC probed into the case and found that Pimpa in colluding with Nophadol had used Nophadol’s and other persons’ trading accounts to trade SALEE shares from April 2 to October 9, 2007. The trading was in the manner that inflated and stabilized the share price as well as matched orders among those accounts. The transactions resulted in increase in the SALEE closing price from 3.20 baht on March 30, 2007 to 5.15 baht on October 9, 2007 or an increase of 60.94 percent. The average daily trading volume also increased from 2.69 million shares to 2.85 million shares or an increase of 5.95 percent. These were done continuously in concealment to mislead and induce the investing public into the trading.

The acts of Pimpa and Nophadol were deemed as share price manipulation in contravention of Sections 243(1) in conjunction with 244 and 243(2) of the Securities and Exchange Act B.E. 2535 (1992) (SEA) and Section 83 of the Penal Code. The Settlement Committee, therefore, imposed penalty fines of 4,587,214.99 baht and 500,000 baht on Pimpa and Nophadol, respectively.