| FINANCE NEWS
|
Magistrate's weekend death means court must start hearing again from scratch
Setback for SA's first insider trading case
April 28, 2004
By Roy Cokayne
Pretoria - The first case brought to court in South African history against someone for trading in securities on the basis of price-sensitive information will have to be reheard in its entirety.
This follows the death at the weekend of Bill Moyses, the magistrate in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Pretoria who heard the evidence of several witnesses in the case during a week-long hearing last August.
The case involves Carol Louise Botha of Waterkloof Agricultural Holdings in Pretoria, who has pleaded not guilty to insider trading involving the shares of Automakers, the holding company of Nissan South Africa.
Glynnis Breytenbach, the deputy director of public prosecutions, confirmed on Monday that the case would have to start again from scratch.
Breytenbach said Moyses' death meant that between 50 and 100 partially heard cases would also have to be reheard.
She said the June date that was arranged for the resumption of Botha's trial would become the provisional date to set another trial date.
Richard Connellan, the executive director of the Securities Regulation Panel, which was responsible for the investigation of the case against Botha, expressed his sympathy to Moyses' family.
Connellan said it was "a disappointment for everyone" that the case would have to be reheard and witnesses recalled.
"It's not a pleasant thing," he said. "The case has been dogged from the start and postponed, delayed and put off."
"Everyone will be extremely cheesed off. It's a disappointment in that it drags further and further out and memories fade."
Theoretically the rehearing of the case would not affect the chances of obtaining a conviction, he said, but "everyone loses some of that enthusiasm".
Botha allegedly made a profit of R947 634 by dealing in 700 000 shares of Automakers on the basis of price-sensitive information allegedly obtained from Charles Owen Wiggill, the former managing director of Nissan Manufacturing.
Both Wiggill and Botha were arrested in September 2001 but charges against Wiggill were withdrawn last August.
The maximum sentence in terms of the Insider Trading Act of 1973 is a fine of R500 000 and/or 10 years imprisonment.
Botha placed an order with stockbroking firm Smith Borkum Hare on January 16 1997 to purchase 700 000 Automakers shares at limits of R3 and R3.50 a share.
The order was executed for a total of R1.928 million that same day, at a price range of between R2.62 and R2.86.
Automakers published a cautionary announcement the following day.
On January 20 1997 it released details of a proposed scheme of arrangement, in terms of which Automakers would be delisted and minority shareholders were offered R4.11 a share.
In line with this scheme, Botha was paid R2.877 million for the shares she had acquired.
The court previously heard in evidence that Botha had not traded in any shares for two years before this transaction.
Automakers was listed in October 1995 at an issue price of R5 a share.
|
|
|
Social bookmarking allows users to save and categorise a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. This is different to using your own browser bookmarks which are available using the menus within your web browser.
Use the links below to share this article on the social bookmarking site of your choice.
Read more about social bookmarking at Wikipedia - Social Bookmarking
|
|
|
News
Markets
Technology News
Company News
International
|
