Trader fined $200k for market manipulation

Sim Tee Yang, 44, was fined $200,000 over four counts of market manipulation. 

A TRADER was fined a total of $200,000 on Tuesday on four counts of market manipulation.

Sim Tee Yang, 44, was working at securities firm CIMB-GK Securities when he created a false or misleading appearance on the price of CapitalMall Trust (CMT) warrants in 2005.

He had access to real-time trade data including bids and asking prices for any particular stock in the course of his work. He used the information to quickly sell large quantities of a certain share. This pushed down the price of warrants, which are financial products linked to the shares.

He snapped up the warrants at the lower price, then pushed their value back up by buying shares, and sold the warrants for a profit. Deputy Public Prosecutor James Lee said that Sim earned a $25,209 net profit over 12 days of trading between May and August in 2005.

Defence counsel Andy Yeo said in mitigation that his client's trades had no significant adverse impact on the market; the trades were limited and carried out over only a few days. He added that his client had been trading for more than 15 years and had kept a clean record.

Sim, who had eight other charges taken into consideration, could have been fined up to $250,000 and/or jailed for up to seven years on each charge.