PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has set Oct 11 to hear corporate lawyer Datuk Sreesanthan Eliathamby’s appeal against a High Court ruling finding him liable for insider trading of Worldwide Holdings Bhd shares in 2006.

Abraham Au, one of Sreesanthan’s lawyers, confirmed the hearing date to Bernama when contacted.

A case management session was held today before Federal Court deputy registrar Mahyun Ismail.

In November 2020, the High Court ruled that Sreesanthan was liable for insider trading of the company’s shares, and ordered him to pay a fine of RM1.99 million to the Securities Commission (SC), which was three times the profits gained.

He was also ordered to pay a civil penalty of RM1 million to the SC and barred from serving as a director of any listed company for 10 years, effective Nov 18, 2020.

On Sept 6, 2022, the Court of Appeal dismissed Sreesanthan’s appeal, upholding the High Court’s ruling.

Subsequently, in April this year, he obtained leave from the Federal Court to appeal against this ruling.

Sreesanthan was accused of acquiring a total of 600,000 Worldwide shares between June 7 and July 11, 2006, while in possession of material non-public information relating to the proposed privatisation of the company by Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor.

At the time, Sreesanthan was a senior partner at a law firm which was engaged to act as the legal advisor of Worldwide’s proposed privatisation.