ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, has decided to share with Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the details of all cases of insider trading and market manipulation in which investigation had been completed and criminal complaints have been filed in relevant courts. The decision has been taken in response to FIA’s request for details of all cases involving insider trading and market abuse for parallel investigation under AML Act, 2010.
It must be noted, that the referral of cases does not accuse the companies whose scrip has been manipulated or the brokerage houses through which trading was undertaken, rather it only points towards the person(s) found involved in Insider Trading and market manipulation, as defined in Securities Act, 2015, while trading in those scrips.
SECP, in line with its mandate has been actively investigating cases of insider trading and market manipulation and consequently filing criminal complaints in court of law under Securities Act, 2015. FIA, has the mandate to investigate the aspect of money laundering in predicate offences under Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010 (the “AML Act, 2010”) and Insider Trading and Market Manipulation are among such predicate offences.
It is pertinent to mention that the record in respect of said cases is public in nature as the same is part of judicial record and can be accessed by any authority/person applying to the court of law. Accordingly, the list of all such 27 cases was shared with FIA under the Anti-Money Laundering (Referral) Rules, 2021.