The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has imposed civil penalties on three individuals who are connected both personally and financially, for jointly creating the price or trading volume of shares of NCL International Logistics Public Company Limited, or NCL. The SEC received information from the Stock Exchange of Thailand in April 2024 and further investigation found that the actions occurred between June 21 and October 26, 2023. The three offenders are Ms. Phattheera Homwilai, Mr. Pongthep Wichaikul, and Mr. Pornthap Wichaikul. They divided their roles, using Ms. Phattheera's securities trading account to place continuous buy orders to push up the share price, repeatedly buying at the same price by splitting orders into multiple orders, submitting large-volume bids at multiple price levels, and placing buy orders at prices higher than the last price before the pre-close period, causing the expected closing price to rise and become the closing price of the day during that period. This constitutes an offense of jointly creating the price of securities under the Securities and Exchange Act B.E. 2535 (1992). The Civil Penalty Consideration Committee resolved that all three offenders must pay civil fines and reimburse the SEC's investigation expenses in the amount of 1,631,641.68 baht each, totaling 4,894,925.04 baht, along with a prohibition on trading securities or derivatives for 8.5, 14, and 8.5 months respectively, and a prohibition on serving as a director or executive in a securities-issuing company or securities company for 17, 28, and 17 months respectively. The civil penalty measures will take effect from the date the offenders sign the memorandum of consent to comply with the civil penalty measures. If they do not consent, the SEC will send a letter requesting the public prosecutor to file a case with the Civil Court to determine civil penalty measures at the maximum rate prescribed by law, but not lower than the rate set by the Civil Penalty Consideration Committee. The civil fines are state revenue remitted to the Ministry of Finance.
NCL International Logistics Public Company LimitedSEC imposed civil penalties on three individuals for jointly manipulating NCL's share price, a regulatory enforcement action tied directly to the company's stock.
