KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — The Court of Appeal today upheld the High Court’s decision which found former deputy managing director of WCT Bhd (WCT) Goh Chin Liong and Ara Holdings Sdn Bhd’s director Leong Ah Chai liable for insider trading.
In a statement, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) said that the three-member bench led by Court of Appeal Justices Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, Datuk Leonard David Shim and Datuk Aliza Sulaiman unanimously affirmed the High Court’s judgment in 2022 which had awarded the commission a total of RM5.83 million for the breaches.
In delivering the decision, the panel unanimously dismissed both appeals with costs of RM100,000 each and upheld the High Court’s judgment as the court found no appealable error that warranted appellate intervention.
The Court of Appeal further affirmed the High Court’s judgment ordering Goh and Leong to each pay RM2,542,184.70 as disgorgement of losses avoided, RM300,000 as civil penalty and costs of RM75,000 to the SC.
The SC first filed a civil claim against Goh and Leong in 2015 for insider trading breaches under sections 188(2) and 188(3) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA).
According to the statement, evidence by the SC showed that Goh had communicated material non-public information to Leong concerning the cancellation of a contract for the proposed construction of a racecourse in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The contract was earlier awarded to a joint venture company set up by WCT and Arabtec Construction LLC.
Leong subsequently disposed 1,640,000 WCT shares in Ara Holdings’ trading account between Jan 2 and 5, 2009.
The then High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim ruled in favour of the SC after a full trial.
Earlier, on May 26, 2026, the SC had succeeded in its appeal to the High Court to reinstate garnishee orders against Goh and Leong, allowing the SC to enforce recovery of the RM5.83 million judgment sum arising from the insider trading breaches by both defendants.
Following the disposal of the appeal today, the SC will proceed with steps to recover the judgment sum from the defendants. — Bernama
