The Federal Court has dismissed former Patimas Computers Bhd executive director Datuk Ng Back Heang’s application for leave to appeal in an insider trading case, bringing to a close a legal battle that began with enforcement action by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) in 2020.
A three-member Federal Court bench comprising Justices Datuk Seri Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, Tan Sri Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh and Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali unanimously ruled that the legal questions raised by Ng had already been settled by an earlier Federal Court decision in the case of Dato’ Sreesanthan Eliathamby v Securities Commission.
The court held that Ng failed to satisfy the threshold for leave to appeal under Section 96(a) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 and dismissed the application. It also ordered Ng to pay RM50,000 in costs to the SC.
The ruling leaves intact the Court of Appeal’s unanimous decision on Sept 2, 2025, which upheld the High Court’s finding that Ng had engaged in insider trading involving Patimas shares in 2012.
The SC commenced civil proceedings against Ng in 2020, alleging breaches of Section 188(2)(a) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA).
According to the regulator, Ng disposed of 16.5 million Patimas shares between May and July 2012 while in possession of material non-public information concerning unresolved audit queries involving suspicious transactions between Patimas and several of its largest debtors.
The issues had been raised by the company’s external auditors during a meeting with management before Patimas announced to Bursa Malaysia on July 31, 2012, that it was unable to issue its annual audited financial statements for the financial period from Jan 1, 2011, to March 31, 2012, due to unresolved significant audit issues.
Ng was serving as an executive director of Patimas at the time.
Following a full trial, the High Court on Nov 16, 2022, found Ng liable for insider trading and ordered him to pay a total of RM2.04 million.
The amount comprised RM1.24 million representing losses avoided through the insider trading, a RM700,000 civil penalty, and RM100,000 in costs.
The High Court also barred Ng from serving as a director of any public listed company for five years.
In the Federal Court proceedings, the SC was represented by Mohd Hafiz Mohd Yusoff and Eunice Ong, together with external counsel Dhinesh Bhaskaran, Serena Isabelle Azizuddin and Wong Jia Jing of Messrs Shearn Delamore. Ng was represented by Datuk Jasbeer Singh of Messrs Jasbeer, Nur & Lee.
