A FORMER senior vice-president of AEM-Evertech Holdings Limited (AEM-Evertech) was 'fined' $100,000 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) after he admitted to insider trading.

Mr Wong Chin Ming was found to have used non-public price sensitive information to make a profit from trading his company shares.

He admitted to civil penalty liability for contravening the Securities and Futures Act (SFA), and has agreed to pay S$100,000 to MAS, which will not take court action against him.

The penalty is for two counts of breaching insider trading laws.

On July 17 and Aug 4 last year, AEM-Evertech made two announcements about its positive performance for the financial year 2006.

On each occasion, Mr Wong bought shares before the announcement. He bought 200,000 AEM-Evertech shares on July 17 and got his wife to buy another 200,000 AEM-Evertech shares on July 26 and Aug 2.

As a result, he made a profit of $12,500 from the transactions. Mr Wong resigned from the company in May.

AEM-Evertech is listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange.

Mr Shane Tregillis, deputy managing director (market conduct) of the MAS, said: 'A person in possession of material price sensitive information breaches insider trading laws by encouraging someone else to trade in the relevant securities, even if he does so without mentioning the precise nature of the inside information.
'MAS will take action against anyone engaging in such conduct.'