After nine years, senior lawyer acquitted and discharged of insider trading involving Sime Darby shares

An appeal against a previous acquittal and four more charges of alleged insider trading against lawyer Datuk Sreesanthan Eliathamby yet to go to trial were all dropped at the various Sessions and High Courts on 20 October. Back in 2012, Sreesanthan was slapped with seven charges under Section 89E(2)(a) of the Securities Industry Act 1983 (Act 280) for his supposed acquisition of the Sime Darby shares which allegedly took place in 2006. He was accused of acquiring the shares while in possession of insider information of a proposed takeover of several companies, that included Sime Darby, by a special purpose vehicle called Synergy Drive Sdn Bhd. Sreesanthan expressed his relief when he confirmed the matter with the Malay Mail following reports of the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and Security Commission’s (SC) decision to abandon their pursuit against the lawyer.