The Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission has imposed civil sanctions on 13 individuals for jointly manipulating trading in Max Metal Corporation (MAX), Electronics Industry (EIC), News Network Corporation (NEWS) and NEWS Warrants Series 5 (NEWS-W5), requiring civil penalties totaling THB 155,092,540. The action followed referrals from the Stock Exchange of Thailand covering 2016–2017 and the SEC’s subsequent investigation into conduct in August to November 2016. The SEC found the individuals, who had financial and personal relationships with one another, placed coordinated trading orders that misled the public about prices or trading volumes and caused deviations from normal market conditions. The cases covered multiple episodes, including MAX (4–23 August 2016: price 0.16 to 0.21 baht and volume 5,387.36 million to 10,452.76 million shares; 14–25 November 2016: 0.15 to 0.16 baht and 6,445.49 million to 9,676.69 million shares), EIC (4–26 August 2016: 0.88 to 1.34 baht and 631.25 million to 1,304.43 million shares; 10 October–23 November 2016: 0.97 to 1.36 baht and 144.19 million to 1,208.98 million shares), NEWS (25 August–9 September 2016: 0.16 to 0.25 baht and 13.43 million to 411.70 million shares) and NEWS-W5 (25 August–7 September 2016: 0.04 to 0.07 baht and 1.65 million to 198.64 million units). The Civil Sanction Committee set individual penalties ranging from THB 500,000 to THB 67,104,063.50. The civil sanctions take effect once the offenders sign letters consenting to comply; otherwise, the SEC will refer the matter to the public prosecutor for a Civil Court case seeking civil sanctions at the maximum applicable statutory level, which will not be lower than the committee’s specified amounts. Any civil penalties collected will be remitted to the Ministry of Finance as public revenue.

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