SECP to Share Details of Insider Trading, Market Manipulation Cases with FIA

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has decided to share 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 with Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).   In a statement, SECP said 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.  Accordingly, a list of 27 criminal complaints filed in the court of law since the year 2008 to date, was shared with FIA in September 2024, under the Anti-Money Laundering (Referral) Rules, 2021. It is pertinent to mention here that the record in respect of said cases is public in nature as the same is part of the judicial record and can be accessed by any authority/person applying to the court of law. 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, SECP said.