The Airocean Case

By Mr Subramanian Pillai and Ms See Tow Soo Ling

In PP v Chong Keng Ban @ Johnson Chong & Ors [2011] SGDC 4, the Executive Director / Chief Operating Officer and 2 Independent Directors (collectively as "Directors") of the listed company Airocean Group Limited ("Airocean") were charged with various offences under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA).

Charges

Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Johnson Chong ("JC") and Independent Directors Peter Madhavan ("PM") were charged and convicted with having consented to Airocean's reckless failure to disclose to the SGX information which was likely to materially affect the company's share prices of Airocean ("Reckless Non-disclosure"). The charge was in respect of the breach of Section 331(1) read with Section 203(2) of the SFA and Rule 703(1) (b) of the SGX Listing Rules.